We Always Find Our Way Back Home
by rhosinthorn
Summary: Makarov Dreyar wanted his brats to have one last experience as guild mates before sending them out alone. If they happened to be in a different dimension and unable to voice their displeasure at his disbandment at the guild? A bonus. Albus Dumbledore wanted guards among the students, eyes and ears that could watch better than an Order member. He got Fairy Tail. Post-416/HBP
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue:**

Makarov looked at the letter in his hand, already knowing what he was going to do. While the request was certainly unusual, it was a godsend. His mind had been made up for the last few days; only his difficulties explaining the matter to his brats had stopped him from making the announcement. This request was perfect.

Calling out to Mira, who was cheerfully reading to his grandson, he said: "Get me Team Natsu, Cana, Gajeel, Levy, Juvia, and Mest. Tell them to meet me here as soon as they can. I have a job for them."

As Mira hurried off, Laxus shifted on the narrow hospital bed. "You do remember that we just finished fighting a war against a dark guild, right?" His grandson asked, voice raspy. It was a constant reminder of how close Makarov had come to losing his only worthwhile family.

"It's a time sensitive job," he replied shortly. "And it _'_ s one I'd rather not pass up on."

The lightning dragon slayer snorted. "If it's so sensitive, why are you sending the most destructive squad we have? And after what we just went through, I think they're going to be worse than usual."

"Are you volunteering to chaperone?" He hadn't thought to send Laxus as well, since the rest of the Raijinshu were in no condition for a mission, but if Laxus wanted to ride herd on Natsu…

A shrug. "You need that big of a squad? What are we up to, eleven, if you count me?"

His grandson raised his eyebrow, stretching the scar that was the mark of his power. There was nothing Makarov regretted more than that scar. If he had been a better father, a better grandfather, could he have saved Laxus from Ivan's obsession with power? He knew Laxus has accepted the lacrima, but those early days, where nobody was sure what might happen...Makarov still felt the helpless rage that had nearly boiled over that day.

"It's a long job, potential infiltrate and protect mission. They want as many as four groups of three and a coordinator."

Another eyebrow raise. "Infiltrate and protect? And you're choosing Team Natsu? Heaven help the protectees."

 _They need the job,_ Makarov wanted to say, but held his tongue, not wanting to explain himself, even to Laxus who might understand. _Because when they hear what I'm going to do, they're going to hate me. And the least I can do is give them this one last chance._

"So," Laxus said, shifting to sit up further. "When do we leave? And who are you going to get to fill the empty places? They want thirteen, and you only have eleven."

"I don't know," Makarov admitted, taking Mira's empty chair. He had thought about sending the Strauss siblings, but now that Laxus was going, he couldn't send all of them. And...

Laxus had lived outside of the guild. He knew how to exist without the family that all of his brats had grown to rely on. His grandson had come back to them, a better man, because of it. Having such an example...it could help. If Laxus wanted to go, he should go.

"I'll see if the others have any suggestions," Makarov answered after a long pause. "After all, you're going to be away for a year. From what I understand, travelling between the client's location and Magnolia is difficult, so you won't be able to visit."

"Look after the Raijinshu for me?" Laxus asked slowly as the familiar sounds of Team Natsu and the rest of the team Makarov had chosen for this job began to be audible. "And if we have to bring in backup, I want them to have right of first refusal. If they're healthy enough."

 _I'm sorry_ , Makarov thought as he turned away, watching his brats tumble through the door. _I'm going to fail you again._

* * *

The spinning wasn't stopping.

Lying on her side, one cheek pressed into what could only be plush carpet, Lucy knew that whatever hellish travel _that_ had been had concluded. The floor wasn't moving. It couldn't be moving. Therefore, it was all in her head.

She understood what the dragon slayers felt like now. Whatever it had been was now her least favorite way to travel, since she felt like emptying the contents of her stomach all over the floor. Someone, likely Natsu, was retching nearby.

Maybe if she opened her eyes, it would stop the spinning?

Tentatively, she cracked one eye open. And flinched back at the sight of bright purple robes. _Garishly_ bright purple robes. They rustled, and then she was looking into a pair of bright blue eyes set into a grandfatherly face. "First time travelling by portkey?"

Lucy considered how she was feeling, and decided that while her nausea was indeed abating, the color was giving her a headache. She could probably open her mouth without vomiting. "Was _that_ what you call it?"

The eyes twinkled. "What you used was an interdimensional portkey of my own invention. Useful, when attempting to bring large groups between dimensions. They do seem to be a bit more violent than regular portkeys though, judging by the state your companions are in.

More retching noises from somewhere behind Lucy. "If that's from a guy with pink hair," she began dryly, "that has nothing to do with the more intense method of travel, and more to do with him being overly prone to motion sickness."

"Lu-cy," a familiar voice whined between bouts of retching. "Natsu's _sick_."

She debated sitting up, and decided to go for it. Carefully, she looked around, spying Natsu retching into what looked like an expensive vase, with a teary Happy hovering anxiously next to him. Gajeel was being hovered over by Levy and Pantherlily, the iron dragon slayer looking exceedingly green and refusing to move an inch or open his mouth. Wendy seemed to be in much the same state, but it was Mest hovering like an twittering nurse with Carla alternately soothing Wendy and scolding him. Though she was surprisingly gentle, compared to some of what Lucy had seen the exceed dish out.

Grey seemed to be reorienting himself well enough, fussed over by Juvia, who looked perfectly fine. _Must have something to do with how she's made completely of water,_ Lucy theorized. She nearly snorted as she saw Cana poking Laxus, her ever-present bottle in her hand as the brunette pestered the lightning dragon slayer, who was sitting up, but still looked nauseous. Next to him, Erza and Jellal were helping each other to sit up, murmuring quietly to each other. And beyond them, Cobra of the Oracion Seis sat, propped up against an ornate desk, his glare promising death for anyone who dared ask him how he was feeling.

Natsu retched again, but his color seemed to be getting better. That, and there was probably nothing else for him to bring back up. Lucy pulled together her scattered thoughts and focused on the man in front of her.

"So, you're the one who hired us?" she asked, trying to remember if the abnormally quick briefing the master had done covered more than _you're supposed to be protecting a school by posing as students_.

The twinkle in the man's eyes brightened. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And I have indeed hired you to protect this school and its students. It is my understanding that you are mages of great skill."

"We do what we can," Erza said as she stood carefully, Jellal scrambling to his feet by her side. "Now, what threatens this school?"

"Let me begin in October of 1981," the headmaster began, the twinkle in his eye dimming.

* * *

Later that night, Lucy lay awake in the narrow bed she had been given. All of the members of Fairy Tail, and the two members of Crime Sorciere that accompanied them, had been put up in the infirmary for the night, likely because they all looked a little worse for wear. Wendy had gotten into a bit of a scrap with the nurse, who had attempted to heal them. She couldn't blame the woman though; all of the mages that had been brought to this... _Earth_ had just been through a war, and it showed. All of them sported bandages here and there, and the marks of freshly healed wounds. But Lucy couldn't help but laugh a little as tiny little Wendy, her hair still uneven from when she cut it herself, faced down a woman who had to be at least four times her age. _And won_.

A faint tingling sensation from her hand distracted Lucy from counting stones in the wall, and she shifted so that the moonlight fell on her right hand. She almost choked as she saw her guild mark slowly fade away.

She watched it, paralyzed by shock for a long moment, and then she scrambled out of bed, kicking the blankets off so hard that her still-healing knee protested, but she didn't care. Stumbling over to Cana, who was in the bed next to her, she roughly shook the brunette awake, waving her hand with the disappearing mark in the other girl's face.

The noise roused Wendy, who was in the next bed over, followed by Levy, and not long after, all of the members of Fairy Tail were huddled on the floor in the middle of the infirmary, panicking over the fading guild marks. When a tall, stern witch came to find them in the morning, she was startled to find ten out of the thirteen mages in the infirmary sleeping in a massive pile on the cold stone floor, dried tear tracks on several faces. The letter she brought with her only made the despair worse.

 _Brats-_

 _I've disbanded the guild. Finish your job well like my brats should. And then go live your lives. You don't need a guild holding you back._

 _Makarov Dreyar_

 _Third & Sixth Master of Fairy Tail_

 _Magnolia, Fiore_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter One:**

The faint sound of chattering voices could be heard from the small antechamber where Lucy waited with the rest of the newly formed Fiore School of Magic. Perched in the chair she had conjured, Lucy straightened the robes she had grown used to wearing, methodically making sure that every inch of fabric hung correctly, even though she knew it didn't really matter. They'd be moving soon anyway.

"How long does the sorting take anyway?" Cana complained from where she lounged on the bench she had conjured. "I mean, all they have to do is put on a hat and let it pick a house." From the sound of her voice, she was still put out about the alcohol restriction the headmaster had enforced.

"They're almost done," Gajeel growled from where he stood by the door, Wendy and Levy next to him. "Cool your jets, drunk."

Where a comment like that made in Fairy Tail would have likely started one of their regular brawls, almost three months at Hogwarts had tempered their reactions into something more...normal. Cana simply rolled her eyes at the iron dragon slayer and shrugged.

"Does everyone remember the job?" Laxus asked, leaning against the wall. In those terrible first few days after they had arrived, he had somehow become the de facto leader of the contingent, with Jellal and Mest as his advisors. Somehow, the man who had once pitted them against each other had been the one to bring them together. "Or do we need to go over it again?"

"Protect the students, and report suspicious activity to the headmaster through Mest." Erza replied promptly. "Use wand magic, not our own, unless the castle is attacked."

Natsu noticeably pouted at this, but they had all spent three grueling months under the tutelage of people who the headmaster had said were experts in their fields. Each of them had been dragged up to the level of sixth year students, the same as the students they'd be observing first hand. It had been difficult for the castor mages among them, since none of them were used to channeling their magic through an object, but Lucy had picked it up fairly easily, as had the other holder mages.

In a way it felt like being in Edolas, only without the alternate Fairy Tail. Learning how to work under different rules for magic, being undercover…

But unlike Edolas, there was no Fairy Tail waiting for them when they made it home.

"It's time," Gajeel said, shifting away from the door. "They're about to make the announcement. How do we line up again?"

"Alphabetically," Levy piped up from his elbow, hands on her hips. "You should know that Gajeel!"

"Just testing you Shrimp," the dragon slayer said with a grin. "And our _Headmaster_ is at the head of the line, right?"

Mest groaned, but positioned himself at the doors. "I don't know why all of you decided _I'm_ your best choice for headmaster."

"You're one of the oldest, and all those years of council work made you good at dispensing bullshit," Laxus replied, taking his place in line behind Cana, who had vanished her bench with a huff and stomped into place at the head of the line. "I'd just fry people, Erza would slice them up, and Jellal's decided not to lead anything bigger than a band of reforming criminals."

Jellal's mumbled protests went unheard in the snickers and general sound of moving fabric as the rest of the group got into line. They waited for a minute or two before Natsu announced: "They've announced us now."

Grumbling something uncomplimentary, Mest pushed open the doors and marched out as if he was at the head of a column of Rune Knights. Snickering at the analogy with Grey, who was next to her in line, Lucy kept pace, letting her eyes sweep over the students, picking out the ones on the list Dumbledore had given them.

The lone Slytherin was easy to spot, his hair almost as white as the Strauss siblings, only a little more blonde. She wondered why he was on the list of students to watch, since he was the only Slytherin, the only antagonist by their tutor's reports, and the only one to have parents who were Death Eaters. Alone amidst the crowd at the Slytherin table, Draco Malfoy was an enigma.

Luna Lovegood was similarly easy to spot at the adjacent Ravenclaw table. She was truly alone, with several empty seats to either side of her, but she didn't seem to mind. The blonde was watching the group of Fairy Tail mages come up the aisle with a curious expression. What they had learned about her was...scattered, but it was enough to intrigue Lucy once she had learned that the delicate looking blonde had been an active participant in what McGonagall had referred to as _the affair at the Ministry_.

No Hufflepuffs on her list, so Lucy let her eyes drift right over their table to land on the Gryffindor table. The two Weasleys were distinctive, with their bright red hair, and it was easy to deduce that the brunette witch with them was Granger. Which meant that the boy with the untidy black hair and remnants of a bloody nose had to be Potter.

She turned slightly to catch Wendy's eye, tipping her head towards Potter. The sky dragon slayer's eyes widened, and Lucy saw her nostrils flare as her features settled into a determined look. Heaven help the boy if the smallest slayer was sorted into Gryffindor. He'd be smothered in her attempts to heal him.

They had reached the head table, and the rickety old stool that held the hat. McGonagall was making some announcement about how even though they were foreign students, they wanted the _Hogwarts Experience_ , which is how they were billing their Sorting. Once the announcement was over, she handed the spotlight over the Mest, who Lucy could see was attempting not to fidget noticeably.

Gripping the hat tentatively as if afraid it would bite him, Mest turned to Cana, who was first in line, and Lucy saw grins of anticipation on every face. For almost three months, all thirteen of them had been taking bets on which houses they would be sorted into, and now was the time to pay the piper.

"Alberona, Cana," Mest called, and the brunette sashayed up to the stool, managing to make it look sultry despite the uniformly cut Hogwarts robes that all of them had been provided with. As Mest placed the hat on Cana's head, it made them wait for a few seconds before calling out: "SLYTHERIN".

With a sigh, Lucy passed a sickle, which she still maintained was a weird thing to call a coin, to Grey, who was smugly accepting bets (and his shirt) from most of the group. Lucy had bet on Hufflepuff, knowing the strong sense of loyalty that the brunette had, but she supposed her sneakiness had edged that out.

Natsu was next, almost turning the stool over in his excitement as he rushed to get the hat on his head. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when the hat placed him in Gryffindor, and Lucy could only hope that someone else made it over there before the fire dragon slayer got them into trouble.

Nobody had dared bet against that outcome, so there was no money changing hands as Laxus stepped gingerly up to the stool, looking ridiculous as he crouched carefully, just barely sitting on the stool as Mest placed the hat on his head. It took a minute or so, and then the hat called out: "RAVENCLAW".

Surprised, Lucy tossed a sickle back to Gajeel, who was chortling as money made its way down to him. From the rustling up at the staff table among those who had been their tutors, Lucy felt certain that they weren't the only ones betting on the outcomes. But she had thought Laxus would make Slytherin, perhaps Gryffindor. Whispers followed the lightning dragon slayer to his seat, and Lucy wished she had a dragon slayer's hearing. Was it his size, his sorting, or his scar that was drawing the attention?

Jellal's sorting took a lot longer than the previous ones, but when he finally went into Gryffindor, Lucy sighed in relief before collecting the coins that everyone was passing her. Even Erza had ebt on a Slytherin sorting for the tattooed man. But Lucy had faith that Jellal's reckless chivalry would win out over his admittedly useful cunning.

Grey was up next, with a slightly panicked look on his face that probably had more to do with Wendy passing him his uniform shirt just before he left and less to do with the sorting itself. When he made it to the stool, the shirt had vanished, likely stuffed in one of his sleeves, and it took a short while for him to be placed in Hufflepuff. _Hard work and Loyalty_ , Lucy mused as she passed Erza a sickle. _It makes sense_. And it separated Natsu from Grey, which increased the likelihood that the school would still be standing by the time their job ended.

As her name was called, she stepped up to the stool, grinning at Mest as she sat down. The rickety structure had been reinforced just for them, even though it already had a fair number of spells on it to keep it from collapsing. Laxus could have rested his full weight on it without a problem.

 _Well, well,_ the Hat's voice said in her mind. _What have we here? Another Fairy Tail wizard?_

 _Sort away_ , Lucy replied, curious as to what the hat saw in her.

 _You Fairy Tail lot are so interesting to sort. None of you have any demands on me, which is a pleasant change compared to the first years. What an interesting mind you have, Lucy Heartfilia. There are many places I could put you, but let's send you to..._ "RAVENCLAW".

Polite applause followed Lucy as she joined Laxus at the blue and bronze table, taking the seat next to him. He slipped her a coin, her winnings from the bet on Jellal's sorting, and they watched as Juvia was sorted into Hufflepuff, snickering at Grey's mildly panicked look. But the water woman surprised them, as she simply walked down to join Grey, instead of throwing herself in his arms. Juvia had...settled a bit, Lucy realized, watching the changed interaction. Or withdrawn. Three months ago, she would have draped herself all over Grey.

Distracted, Lucy watched as Wendy joined the two, smiling shyly as she took the empty seat on Grey's other side. It was telling that Wendy had tripped over nothing on her way to the stool, just as she had the first time Lucy had met her, and then again in the arena during the Grand Magic Games. The girl was nervous, but hopefully being with Grey and Juvia would help. All in all, it was a good fit for the girl, Lucy thought, applauding with the others, and another predictable outcome.

As was Levy's sorting into Ravenclaw, the blunette happily sliding into the seat next to Lucy. Together, they watched anxiously as Cobra approached the stool.

Nobody was really sure what to make of the surly poison dragon slayer. Despite spending almost three months in close proximity, it had still taken a direct order from Dumbledore to get him to reveal his birth name. The revelation had automatically been followed with a series of death threats to anyone who used it outside of necessary situations. He only spoke when necessary, ignored any and all attempts to make conversation, and really only listened to Jellal. And maybe Erza, since the redhead had pulled out a massive hammer during the only argument he had ever allowed himself to be drawn into.

Lucy wasn't sure how she felt about the man. She had heard what Jellal had to say about the Seis background, and she could understand why the poison dragon slayer was as antisocial as he was, but she couldn't forget that he had been part of the plot to sacrifice her to the Infinity Clock.

So she was grateful when he went to Slytherin, giving her some space to come to terms with how she felt about him. There had been too many losses for her recently, too much heartbreak. And if she had to spend another nine months in close contact with a man who had been involved in one of those losses? Lucy wasn't sure she wouldn't snap before those nine months were up.

Gajeel followed Cobra to Slytherin, which was mostly unsurprising, but Lucy had bet on Hufflepuff, just to watch the expression on his face while she placed her bet. When Erza went to Gryffindor, Lucy couldn't help but wonder if Dumbledore had planned this with the hat, dividing them evenly amidst the four houses. As Mest handed the hat over to McGonagall and took his seat at the Head Table, Dumbledore made a few further announcements and then opened the feast.

Which, of course, meant open season for questions.

"So, where is the Fiore School of Magic?" A brunet asked from down the table. "Terry Boot, sixth year, by the way."

"Nobody really knows," Lucy said with a shrug, helping herself from one of the platters in front of them. "I can't even explain how we got here. A portkey that Dumbledore made."

"Is that why you didn't take the train?" A girl with long black hair asked. "Oh, Cho Chang, seventh year.

Lucy snickered, trading amused looks with Levy. "Some of us are prone to motion sickness, so it was better that we didn't take the train. It took us a bit to recover from the Portkey."

Many of the students were darting glances at Laxus's scar, and then craning their necks to see over to the Gryffindor table, likely in an attempt to check that Potter was there. Laxus was ignoring them, focusing on his dinner. Not that Lucy blamed him. Some of the girls were practically salivating whenever they looked at him. It was enough to put anyone off their food.

After a meal filled with ruthless interrogation by the inquisitive Ravenclaws, who were nothing short of relentless in the pursuit of new knowledge, Dumbledore rose to make several announcements. Once he had finished, Lucy and the others "let" their new housemates show them to Ravenclaw Tower.

In truth, Lucy and the Fairy Tail contingent had been given full access to the castle during the almost three months they had been there. They had investigated all of the house dormitories, explored as many secret passages as they could find, and had located the kitchens and the Room of Requirement. The only location they hadn't been able to explore was the Chamber of Secrets. Mainly because nobody was suicidal enough to ask Cobra if he spoke snake.

But they followed obediently behind the gaggle of Ravenclaws as they pointed out key landmarks and the best ways to get to class. Someone had opened the door to the tower by the time they made it up there, and Lucy obediently filed into place and listened to the prefect's speech along with the first years.

By the time they were released for bed, she was bored out of her mind. If this was how the job was going to be like for the next nine months, she might jump off the Astronomy Tower.

 *****So, I forgot my AN for the prologue. For those of you who've stuck with me this far, here's what this is about. This is my NaNoWriMo 2016 project. Instead of the traditional "write to 50k", I'm planning on completing this crossover in 30 days. It's not a "chapter a day" thing, it's a "however many chapters until we reach the end" thing.**

 **To keep me honest, I've decided to post whenever I complete a chapter. This is completely unbeta'd, so I apologize in advance for any errors. I know that can mean things get a bit confusing, but I'll do my best to keep it as neat as possible.**

 **So, things about this story in particular. It's set post-416, during the events covered in** ** _Half Blood Prince_** **. The crew have been at Hogwarts during the summer session, learning how to blend in. There will be more on that coming soon. So far, we have no romances, but I've found that NaNo tends to make its own plans for me, so I'm not ruling it out.**

 **Thanks for sticking with me!*****


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Two:**

She was up with the dawn in the morning, unraveling the spells wrapped around her bed in the dorm she how shared with five Ravenclaw girls and Levy. Lucy had unpacked her trunk the night before, hanging the few things she had brought from Magnolia in the wardrobe next to the things Dumbledore had provided. Sometime during the night, the house elves had added the Ravenclaw crest and trim to the previously unadorned black robes that were standard Hogwarts fare. Collecting what she wanted, Lucy stepped into the adjacent bathroom to get ready for the day.

Slipping out of her dormitory without waking the others, Lucy was surprised to find a familiar looking blonde humming cheerfully to herself in the common room. As she entered, Luna Lovegood looked up, resting her piercing eyes on her fellow blonde.

"Lucy Heartfilia, is it?" the girl asked, absently playing with her wand as she said: "Quite the paradox. _Lucia_ is the patron saint of the blind, and _Lucius_ is derived from light. A study in opposites, don't you think?"

"I don't believe we've been acquainted," Lucy said carefully, knowing from the reports of what happened at the Ministry that the girl was certainly more of a threat than she appeared to be, but unnerved by how dotty she seemed in real life.

"Luna Lovegood," the girl replied. "Although most people seem to prefer to call me Loony. I can't imagine why, perhaps it's the nargles getting to them?"

 _Nargles_. Something not covered in the brief section of their tutoring that had discussed magical creatures. Filing it away to look up, even if all she did was confirm it was one of the mystical creatures that Lovegood was prone to discussing. "I'm going down to the Great Hall."

"Sunrise is the best time for honest reflection," Luna called after her. "It banishes the demons."

Scowling, Lucy left the common room and the irritatingly perceptive young woman behind.

* * *

There was nobody in the Great Hall when she arrived, but by the time she had finished picking at her plate of fruit and toast, it was about half full.

Levy appeared next to her, with Wendy close behind. "So, how's your silencing charm?" the blunette asked, helping herself to breakfast. Wendy hovered just behind Levy's shoulder, looking concerned.

"None of your business," Lucy replied shortly, pushing aside her plate. She knew what this was about, and why they had decided to pick now to talk with her about it. "Leave me be."

"Lu, you can't keep doing this, it's not good for your health…" Levy began, and Lucy slowly set her cup of tea down.

"Drop it," she hissed, fingers gripping the table.

"We're worried about you," Wendy began, but Lucy was finished with the conversation.

"Leave me alone," she spat, and grabbed her bag, heading out of the Great Hall. Plunging through a group of Hufflepuffs, she took the first shortcut she saw, almost sprinting up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Coming out of the first shortcut, she took another one, passing almost unseen through the walls as she made her way to the seventh floor.

Pacing outside the stretch of blank wall, she absentmindedly set a timer with her wand, knowing that if she missed her first class she'd have more problems to deal with. As the door materialized, she strode in, wand already moving as she turned on the first dummy.

" _Reducto_!" she hissed, and the dummy turned to dust. " _Bombarda!_ _Confrigo! Expulso!_ " Again and again the room provided dummies, dummies with pointed, almost canine-like ears and again and again she reduced them to nothing. By the time the alarm rang, the sound alien after listening to the destruction of the dummies and her own quick breaths, she had let out a little bit of the frustration that had built up from weeks of her friends attempting to subtly prod into her private affairs.

Adjusting her robes, she picked up her schoolbag and headed down to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

In the time they spent being tutored in wand magic, they had met several of the professors. McGonagall, for instance, had taught them transfiguration and despaired over the combined efforts of Natsu, Gajeel, and Grey, who had attempted to outdo each other repeatedly. Flitwick, the diminutive charms professor, had been rather helpful in teaching the caster mages how to use holder magic. Hagrid had given them a _brief_ overview of magical creatures, and Sprout had taught them about magical plants.

But they had been taught potions by an Auror, who was apparently some sort of officer of the law, named Tonks, who spent most of their classes imitating the various hair colors in the room. Lucy hadn't been able to find much information on that particular skill, but she knew it was impressive, and rare. The Hogwarts Potion Master had been absent for the entire summer, and now he was teaching Defense. Of the core subjects taught at Hogwarts, Severus Snape was the only professor they hadn't met.

Outside the classroom, the sixth years who had qualified for the class lingered, lines drawn clearly in the groupings. Slytherin students sneered at the Gryffindors, who glared right back. Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws fidgeted uncomfortably, and all the while the members of Fairy Tail stood quietly, waiting for something to happen.

As Lucy arrived, Levy and Wendy looked like they wanted to say something, but before they could, the door swung open, and the scowling face of Professor Severus Snape glared out at them.

"Inside," he snapped, and vanished into the depths of the classroom, leaving them to follow him.

Seating was again done by mostly house divisions, and the groups from Fairy Tail seemed content to follow it. However, seeing the look on Levy's face, Lucy veered off to the side, placing herself between a Slytherin girl and Cobra. Neither one would pester her, and Levy would think twice about trying to speak to her during class.

" _You will not use me as a shield, Heartfilia_ ," Cobra hissed under his breath as Snape began lecturing.

" _I'm not talking to you, Oracion,_ " she hissed back, focusing on the professor's speech about the Dark Arts. Once he had finished, he set them to practicing nonverbal spells. As he swept through the room, pairing off students, Lucy wondered if he knew that Moody, the man who had taught them all how to duel, had started most of them on nonverbal spells. Natsu had never really gotten the hang of it, but most of the others could usually pull them off.

Paired with Malfoy, Lucy went immediately on the defensive. Her shield charm was flawless, after the hours she had spent working on it, and more importantly for this class, nonverbal. But she let her lips move slightly, as if she was whispering the incantation, allowing Malfoy to pelt her shield with spells that seemed more like curses and severe hexes than jinxes.

A soft yelp alerted her to trouble, and she saw Wendy cradling a hand with a nasty looking welt on it. Automatically, she snapped a body bind on Malfoy before turning to attend to Wendy. Levy and Erza were already there, and with a quick tap of her wand, Levy restored the younger girl's skin to normal.

As a group, the Fairy Tail wizards had bound, disarmed, or stunned their opponents when they heard Wendy cry out, and before the duelling resumed, they had to be revived, unbound, or have their wand returned. Most of the students took it in stride, although with a fair bit of grumbling. But Malfoy got even more vicious.

Her shield held against his redoubled attacks, but she was being pressed back. Tripping over someone's discarded schoolbag, she fell heavily.

Lying on the floor spells flying around her and at her, she felt her throat begin to close up in panic. Her knee ached in painful memory, and then something inside her snapped. Scrambling to her feet, she blocked each and every spell Malfoy sent at her, deflecting them away from the other students, who were scrambling to get out of the way as Malfoy retaliated with more curses. Pressing him back, she had him flat against the wall as she disarmed him, sending his wand flying away to land somewhere else in the classroom. Pointing her own wand at his forehead, she looked at him, not really seeing him anymore, seeing pointed ears and darker blonde, almost brunet, hair.

Then she blinked, and the person in front of her was Draco Malfoy, and she backed away, unsteady. Her knee ached, and as she turned, there was a wand pointing at her.

"Ten points from Ravenclaw, Miss Heartfilia, for attacking one of your fellow students." The professor's voice sounded like someone else for a moment, and she flinched, bringing her wand up in front of her. It was ripped from her hand with a disarming spell, and then everything in the room came to a complete halt.

" _Fifty_ points from Ravenclaw for raising a wand to a professor, Miss Heartfilia." She blinked again, and it was Professor Snape in front of her, looking furious. Wanting to just go sit down for a minute, she backed away, caught between Draco Malfoy and the professor.

"You might as well just empty _all_ the hourglasses, _Professor_ ," came a familiar, and surprising drawl from Lucy's right. "Considering there are ten wands pointed at you right now: three from Gryffindor, three from Hufflepuff, two from Ravenclaw, and two from Slytherin. What does that add up to, a hundred and fifty each from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, one hundred from Slytherin, and a sum total of one hundred and sixty from Ravenclaw, including Heartfilia's previous deductions? They can't have earned more than that in the past two periods."

"I don't need your help, _Cobra_ ," Lucy hissed, starting to regain her balance, both figuratively and literally. She felt both cold with fear and hot with shame.

" _Detention_ , Mr. Oracion, Miss Heartfilia," Snape hissed turning on his heel in a swirl of black robes. "For a week. The rest of you, put these desks back in order, and then class is dismissed. Three feet of parchment on the nonverbal spells: their execution, their use, and any differences they have from spoken spells. On my desk before class begins on Wednesday."

The Fairy Tail wizards slowly lowered their wands and reversed whatever curses they had inflicted on the other students to keep them out of the way while Lucy was being confronted by Snape. Grumbling and muttering, the rest of the students set about straightening the classroom as Lucy limped over to where her schoolbag rested against the wall and sat down.

Her knee hurt.

Someone pressed a long piece of wood into her hand, and when she opened her eyes and found her wand, she looked up to see Laxus standing there. Absently, she recast the warming spell on the brace she was wearing to support her knee. It helped.

Marginally.

"Come on Lucy," he said softly, offering her a hand up. "We've got to get to Ancient Runes."

She allowed him to haul her to her feet. Everyone was watching her out of the corner of their eyes, waiting to see if she cracked up. Attacked someone else.

Slowly, Laxus walked with her to Ancient Runes, taking the seat next to her, with Levy on her right. Together, the two of them were a solid blockade against curious eyes. As the rest of the students filtered in, she could tell that those who had been in Defense had spread the tale. Only the professor was spared from eyeing her suspiciously.

For the entire period, and Arithmancy after that, she kept her head down. Kept herself out of trouble. But as she walked to lunch, Levy glaring at her side to ward off curious passersby, she knew that what had happened today wasn't going to be anyone any time soon.

At lunch she barely ate a bowl of soup, and would have eaten less if Levy and Laxus hadn't been watching every move she made. So to make them happy, she ate the soup and dutifully let Levy walk with her to Potions, Wendy and Jellal coming to walk with them as Cobra skulked behind. His coming to her aid in Defense Against the Dark Arts had been surprising, since she would have figured the surly dragon slayer would have been happy to see her in trouble. But she still wasn't sure she had forgiven him for the Infinity Clock affair.

Her knee was aching even more by the time they made it down to the Potions' classroom, and unless she wanted to be more conspicuous in her application of warming charms, she would have to sit tight and hope that the cold numbed it. Lucy suspected that Wendy knew her knee was bothering her, considering she had been limping on her way out of Defense earlier, but they both knew that there was nothing to be done unless they were willing to entertain the idea of reinjuring her knee and starting from scratch.

There was nothing anyone could do. Well, the nurse had thought she might be able to help, but even she admitted that from the amount of damage her scans reported, after all this time and the initial healings, she may not be able to restore full functionality.

Sinking gratefully into a seat in the back corner of the room, Lucy hoped this class would pass quickly. In the beginning of the job, while they were being tutored enough to fit in, she had been excited. So much new knowledge was at her fingertips! And then the realization that once this was over, she would be completely alone sunk in, souring everything.

* * *

"I was going to leave on a training trip," Natsu had admitted one night as they sat around the large room that they had been given. "Just me and Happy. We were going to leave the night we came here."

Across the room, Grey snorted. "I was on my way out the door when Mira stopped me. There's...there's someplace I've got to go."

After those initial revelations, the rest of them spilled out. Wendy wanted to go to Lamia Scale, to work with Chelia and see if there weren't more things she could learn. Cana was going to go looking for Gildarts. Gajeel grunted something about his own training trip.

They were all going to leave. Just accept that the guild they had fought so hard to return to in x784 was gone and there was nothing they could do. The guild they had worked so hard to redeem during the Grand Magic Games was set aside like it was nothing. And while defeating Zeref's demons had been something that had saved _all_ of Earthland's mages, Lucy, at the very least, had fought for her guild. Fought to protect _them_.

She muttered something about getting a job as a reporter, but inside, Lucy had been screaming.

* * *

Professor Slughorn looked like what Droy would if he didn't slim down before he got old. The rotund wizard clearly pandered to the notable students in the room, choosing to mostly ignore the Fairy Tail contingent, which suited Lucy. She had shown too much during Defense Against the Dark Arts, which went against their orders to keep a low profile and was no need for her to stand out even further.

As they brewed, all five of them sharing one workstation despite there only being four seats, Lucy pretended not to see the looks the others were giving her while she watched the classroom. It helped, a bit, focusing on the potion she was making and the other students in the room. Slughorn's challenge seemed to have sparked a bit of competition in the Gryffindor corner, and Draco Malfoy seemed to be working feverishly.

Personally, she didn't care about the tiny vial of Felix Felicis. There was nothing luck could do to help her now. It wouldn't fix her knee, or bring her guild back. Luck couldn't fix the hurts of the war against Tartarus.

When the class ended, Potter walked out with the potion and what seemed to be the anger of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. With her wardens around her, Lucy headed for the Great Hall, anxious to get away from the dark dungeon corridors that reminded her too much of Plutogrim.

After dinner, she shooed away Levy and Laxus, who seemed intent on following her, and slowly made her way towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Cobra slunk out not long after her; she could hear his footsteps in the hallway, the rhythmic sound drowning out the whispering of the portraits. She was glad he didn't try to talk with her. Lucy had no interest in making small talk with him.

Reaching the classroom, she knocked and waited for permission to enter before she walked in. As she did, she focused on the things that made this room different from Plutogrim, focused on everything that made it Hogwarts, not Magnolia.

Snape was behind his desk, a pile of essays in front of him. "Sit, both of you," he snapped irritably, gesturing to two seats in the front row with his quill. "Do not speak."

Obediently, Lucy took her seat, noticing that Cobra managed to put as much distance as possible between the two of them, despite the indicated seats being right next to each other. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Snape finished the essay he was marking and set it on top of the pile.

"Now that I have finished marking the inanity that the third years believe to be appropriate responses to summer homework, I may now deal with your own stupidity. Tell me, Miss Heartfilia, in the Fiore School of Magic, is it permissible to attempt to do serious injury to another student? To threaten a teacher?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by a loud snort from Cobra. "Cut the posturing, _Professor_ ," he sneered, leaning back in his seat. "We all know that there was no way she was actually threatening you. Or have you never had a flashback, what with all your spying?"

The professor froze.

"And what," he asked slowly, looming over the poison dragon slayer, "would you know about my _spying_?"

Cobra shrugged, a malicious grin playing over his lips. "You may be able to block your mind, _Professor_ , but you can't block your soul. You knew she was having a flashback, let's not pretend. No audience here."

"I don't need you to defend me, _Cobra_ ," Lucy snapped. "I'm perfectly capable of handling my own problems."

"This isn't about you, _Princess_ ," he sneered back. "I spent too many years of my life chained to petty bullies, and I'm not going to let myself spend another year being punted about by another-"

"Enough," Snape roared, and Lucy jumped slightly, hand reaching for her wand. "One of you is going to tell me what the hell type of game Albus is playing, without the added commentary."

"Is this room secure?" Lucy snapped, wondering what the headmaster was doing. All of the professors should have been informed that they were not regular students, but somehow Snape hadn't been?

Snape waved his wand. "Now it is. Speak."

"The headmaster wanted extra eyes and ears among the students, so he brought us in," Lucy replied shortly. "The theories about alternate dimensions are true, and we were contacted and hired for a year long job. He spent the summer having members of the Order of the Phoenix and several staff members teach us how to use magic through wands."

Running his hand over his face, Snape's fingers twitched as if he was attempting not to curse something. "And how the hell did he pick someone who is obviously still suffering from a traumatic incident?"

Lucy laughed hollowly. " _All_ of us were fresh out of a war when we came here. The rest of them are just better at forgetting."

" _I_ just had the shit kicked out of me by Saint Jellal," Cobra muttered. "Not much trauma in that. Just wounded pride."

"Bully for you," the blonde hissed. "While you were off plotting your next human sacrifice, the rest of us were attempting to save the _world_. And do you know what our reward was? To lose _everything_. We thought it was over when the bodies had been tallied, but then he had to go and send us all away…"

"Stop whining about losing your shitty guild," Cobra snapped back. "Boo hoo, my friends are all gone. So what? No, what you're really upset about is-"

A loud bang sent Lucy skittering away from the desks, her wand in hand and the other grasping the keys in her pocket. Snape was standing in front of them, his wand out and a thin trail of smoke trailing from it. "Sit down Miss Heartfilia, and don't make me give you another week's detention for drawing a wand on a teacher."

She sat.

* * *

When Snape released them from detention, her hands were cramping from copying line after line. Cobra had been given lines as well, but he seemed unaffected. They parted at the stairs, he heading for the dungeons and she heading for Ravenclaw Tower. But before she made it up more than one floor, her knee spasmed and gave out.

 _Too many stairs today_ , she thought as she lowered herself to the ground from where she had propped herself up against a wall in order to keep from toppling over. _And too much furious movement._

Knowing that she wasn't going to make it up the stairs, she reached into her bag and pulled out a roll of parchment and a quill. She might as well get a start on Snape's essay before Filch caught her out of bounds.

She had a foot and a half done by the time Laxus found her. Once she had packed away her books and parchment, Laxus picked her up and carried her back to the tower, inciting a trail of whispering from the portraits.

As they reached the door, the knocker asked: "Where do you bury the survivors?"

"In their own misery," Lucy snapped before Laxus could point out that survivors have no need of burial. The door swung open, and Lucy stared stonily ahead as Laxus walked her to the base of the girl's staircase.

Levy was waiting for her there, an anxious look on her face, but Lucy ignored her well-intentioned questions as she hobbled up the stairs, leaning on the blunette. Between the two of them, they got Lucy into bed, tucked in with the rest of Snape's essay to finish with everything she might need within easy reach.

"Go on back down," Lucy said as one of their dormmates called up for Levy to come and finish the Ancient Runes translation with them. "I'll be fine."

The blunette looked unconvinced but left. Reaching for her wand, Lucy closed the curtains, glad to be alone at last. Spending all day among the other students, holding herself together after her flashback in the morning...it had been a struggle.

But now she was all on her own, cocooned in the blue draperies that surrounded her bed. She could silence them, and not have to worry about waking the others when she invariably woke from a nightmare. It may not be her apartment, but it was _her_ space.

And she needed that right now.

 *****And chapter two. Again, there is no beta here, just me posting pretty much right after I've finished a chapter. I'm mainly doing this to keep me honest and to apologize for the hiatus I've been on recently. Longer chapter this time, with a bit more explanation.*****


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Three:**

In the morning, Lucy rose again with the dawn. In the bathroom, she covered the dark circles under her eyes with concealer, a gift from Cancer that managed to last throughout the day without smudging. She had nightmares again, nightmares of Jackal and Mard Geer's voice, the cries of the pregnant woman Jackal had tried to use as his pawn...they just wouldn't stop.

And worst of all were the words. The last four words she would ever hear.

" _I've been hating you this whole time._ "

They were lies of course, Lucy knew that. But somehow, it was more painful that they were lies. It would have be easier to do what she had done if the words had been true.

Shaking off the thoughts, she finished getting ready for the day before dressing and heading for the Great Hall.

This time, she left before the others could make it down for breakfast, eating a few slices of toast and taking an orange with her. She only had Charms today, before lunch. So it was up to her to patrol the castle for the first two periods.

Her wanderings took her to a sunny corridor on the first floor, overlooking a small courtyard. Ensconcing herself in a niche, she pulled out her orange and started peeling it. From the looks of it, it would be a good day, one that Lucy would willingly spend in the courtyard. Hopefully the other students would do the same.

As she slowly ate the orange slices, leaving a pile of peel on the ground, she remembered how it had been to live at the Konzern. Oddly enough, her best infiltration skills had been developed there. _When everyone thinks that you're an airhead_ , she reflected grimly, _it's easy to hide in plain sight_.

When she had finished with her orange, Lucy vanished the peels on the floor and pulled out her Runes homework. She had set it aside the night before in favor of her Arithmancy and the Defense essay Snape had set. Besides, there was something about sitting in the sunshine and reading that appealed to her.

The first period passed without much trouble. Only a few students came through the courtyard, and once Lucy had finished with her translation she decided it was time to move on. Repacking her school bag, she left her niche to go wander the halls.

As she expected, they were empty. The younger students were in class, and if the older ones had a free period, they were busy catching up in their common rooms or getting an early start on homework or NEWT revising. She was alone with her thoughts as she paced the hallways, absentmindedly listening to the portraits as they chatted with each other. It was...pleasant. There was no need to focus on anything but picking up any interesting chatter, or spotting any odd movements of students.

When she checked the time and decided that she could head towards the Charms classroom, she nearly bumped into someone as she rounded the corner. Trying to regain her balance, she looked up into a face that was almost as startled as she felt.

"What are you looking at," Darco Malfoy snapped, backing away from her. "After what you did yesterday, they still let you stay?"

"It was an accident," Lucy said coolly, knowing that justifying herself beyond that would only bring more problems. "My apologies. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a class to attend."

"Not so fast," Malfoy said, shifting to block her way. "You're new here, so you don't understand. _Some_ wizards are better than others, and the Malfoy's are the best. What you did can't go unpunished."

"So having a father in jail for being a Death Eater makes you the best?" Lucy said with a shrug, turning to go back the way she came. If she cut through the side passage she had passed a little bit ago, she could reach the Charms classroom without too much delay. "I'll keep that in mind."

She felt, more than saw, the hex he sent towards her, bending out of its way just in time. Fighting down the panic and the anger that told her to curse him first and ask questions later, she flicked a silencing spell, followed by a leg locker jinx at him. It wasn't much, but it would immobilize him long enough for her to step into the passage and put some distance between them.

Lucy reached the Charms classroom without further incident. She was first there, and by the time the others arrived, the contingent from the greenhouses smelling very strongly of fertilizer, she was immersed in a text she had found in the library about magic theory. Having been to Edolas, and now to this _Earth_ , she wanted to try and draw conclusions about magic in all three dimensions that she had visited.

Malfoy was glaring at her as Laxus came to stand next to her, bringing with him the stench of fertilizer. Why he had signed up for Herbology was beyond her, but she cast a scent freshening charm on him before sending another towards Natsu and the others who had been with him. If the smell was bothering her, she couldn't imagine how the dragon slayers were feeling.

"I always forget about that one," Laxus said, leaning against the wall. "You were up early this morning."

She nodded, turning a page. It was interesting information, but nothing to really help her pin down the differences between Edolas and her own world, which seemed to operate much like this one.

"You didn't come down to breakfast," he continued, seeing that she wasn't going to respond.

"I did," Lucy said, turning another page. And another. "I just left before the rest of you came down."

He sighed, but before he could press her, the door opened and they all filed in for Charms.

* * *

She managed to avoid his questions for all of lunch by the simple measure of not _going_ to lunch. Instead she hid in the library and went over her assignments until lunch was over, and then snuck off to the kitchen for lunch. The first of the afternoon periods was History of Magic, which meant that Laxus and Levy would be tied up there, Natsu and Erza would be babysitting Potter and the Gryffindor contingent, and hopefully the other half of the Fairy Tail contingent would be too busy keeping an eye out for the students to fuss over finding Lucy.

Her luck ran out during the second period.

Lucy had abandoned the library, knowing that it was going to be the first place Levy looked after classes ended. She thought about returning to the courtyard, but there were a fair number of students there when she passed by, and it would probably draw the attention of one of the other Fairy Tail members eventually.

She was on her way up to the Room of Requirement when Laxus found her. Cornering her in the middle of the hall, he looked as if he was about to start lecturing her right away, but she motioned towards the general direction of the Room of Requirement and continued on.

Once they were safely inside the room, Lucy dropped down on the armchair the Room provided and gestured for Laxus to take the other. "You've been dying to lecture me since Defense yesterday. Let's just get this over with."

"This _lecture_ ," Laxus began slowly, "probably should be more like an intervention."

Bristling, Lucy leaned forward. "I'm _fine_ ," she hissed, gripping the sides of her chair. "Yeah, my knee's messed up and there's nothing anyone can do about it, but other than that, I'm fine! If all of you would just get off my back-"

"You barely eat," the lightning dragon slayer stated flatly "and from what any of us can tell, you don't sleep much either. You're pulling away from everyone, and yesterday you nearly attacked one of the people we're hired to protect. Tell me, does that sound like you're doing _fine_?"

"Why do you care?" she spat, throwing herself back in her chair, unable to defend against the accusations. As he put it, it sounded bad.

"Because for some reason I ended up in charge of this particular expedition, even though we're making Mest be the figurehead," Laxus grunted. "And more importantly, you're a member of Fairy Tail. We don't just turn aside."

"You're doing a pretty fine job of it."

The words hung between them for a long moment.

"So that's what this is about," Laxus said, running his hand through his hair. "The disbandment."

"You mean how everyone just walked away?" she retorted, unable to stop herself. "How they were going to walk away even before they knew it was going to happen without saying a word to anyone? How those that didn't have immediate plans had no issues coming up with some?" All the bitterness she had felt ever since she saw the others just accept that it was over was boiling over and spilling out in a torrent of words. "You didn't even _try_. Everything we've ever fought for, tried to preserve, and you were willing to just let it go without a second thought."

"What else could we do?" Laxus asked calmly. "By the time any of us get back to Magnolia, the others will be long dispersed."

" _They looked for us_. They waited for us when the world said we were dead. The guild isn't dead until we abandon it. You could bring it back," she said desperately, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. "You're Master's grandson. We would follow you."

He stared at her like a deer caught in a spotlight.

"For some of us, the guild is all we _have_ ," she continued, feeling the tears start to spill down her face, but she was beyond caring right now. "We've lost too much, especially recently. I can't lose the guild too." Taking a gasping breath she waved the bare back of her hand at him. "Every time I see this, I wonder if we were _wrong_ in thinking that we stopped the futures that Rogue and, and s _he_ came from. I wonder if this isn't how it started…"

"There was another traveller?" Laxus asked sharply, coming out of his chair to kneel in front of her, eyes fixed on her face. "Another person came through the Eclipse Gate?"

Lucy nodded miserably. " _Me_ ," she whispered, cradling the bare hand. "I did."

"What did she say? What happened in her timeline?"

" _Dragons_ ," Lucy whispered through the sobs choking her throat. "Ten thousand. She came back to close the door, and _that_ is what created Rogue's future."

"Did she go back, like Rogue did?"

"Her corpse did."

Laxus looked as if the floor had just been vanished out from under him. "She _died_?"

"She was murdered," Lucy corrected bitterly. "By Future Rogue. He was...he was aiming for _me_. I...I held her while she died." _She just wanted to have more adventures with Fairy Tail_.

He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something. Closed it, and opened it again, reaching out for her hands. "I'm so sorry."

"She didn't really exist," Lucy said, looking away from him. "In the end, she disappeared. This wasn't her world."

"But she was _you_ ," Laxus said gently. "She was a person you could have become, and you're real. You're worth mourning."

Lucy felt herself shaking with the suppressed feelings she had been trying to hold back. Ripping her hands free of his gentle hold, she left the chair and wished desperately for a target.

Out of nowhere, a blank clay disc came flying through the air, and she took aim. " _Bombarda!_ "

Another. " _Reducto_!"

A third. " _Confrigo!_ "

Gently, carefully, as if not to startle her, a hand covered her own, lowering her wand. "Lucy," Laxus said softly. "Enough."

"No," she hissed, trying to tug her hand out of his grasp. "No! Let me go Laxus!"

"So you can destroy more things?" he asked. "So you can avoid those of us who give a damn about you and can't stand to watch you destroy yourself like this?"

"You don't know anything about what's going on," she spat, tugging futilely at her wrist in the hopes that he would let her go. "Name the people I've lost since we woke up."

"The Lucy who came through the Eclipse Gate," Laxus began. "And the guild."

"Wrong."

His brow furrowed in concentration. "Wait, wasn't there that girl from that thing with the clock?"

"Still not all of them. Talk to me when you have the full list." Twisting her wrist in his grasp, she thought: _Relashio!_

It wasn't much, but his grip loosened for a moment, and she darted out of the Room, intent on making it to someplace he wouldn't follow.

* * *

 _The nice thing about girls' lavatories_ , Lucy thought. _is that no boy in their right mind would dream of entering one._ And since seven out of the thirteen Fairy Tail members who had come to Hogwarts were male, that meant she only had to worry about the five other girls.

Which made it even better that one of the girls' lavatories was haunted and nobody really considered actually _using_ it.

 _Besides_ , Lucy thought as she worked on her Charms homework. _Once you get used to Myrtle, you can start attempting to one-up each other in terms of who's more miserable._

The ghost was currently wailing in the u-bend, which she had tuned out in favor of focusing on her Charms. It was past dinner, but Lucy figured she'd stop by the kitchens just before curfew and then hightail it up to Ravenclaw Tower and into the safety of her dorm before either of her friends could interrogate her.

What she hadn't planned on was how much someone else wanted quiet.

The door to the bathroom opened, and Cobra walked in, a scowl on his face.

"They're all contemplating tearing the castle apart looking for you," he growled. "It's obnoxious to listen to."

"Welcome to my world," she said tiredly, gesturing to the bathroom. "Come sit with Myrtle and I and we can commiserate together."

"We're not friends," he growled, shoving his hands in the pockets of his robes. "Seems as if the only place in this castle that the rest of you losers _can't_ get into is Slytherin's secret chamber. Since all of you are too scared to ask me to do it, I figure it's the best place to hide."

"Not if I tell them," Lucy hissed, scrambling to put away her charms homework and stand up. "But I'll keep quiet for one favor."

Cobra snarled. "Not on your life."

"Then I'll make sure to tell Natsu _exactly_ where to look for you _every_ time you go missing. And you know as well as I do that he'd be willing to drag Potter down here and make him open it up if it meant he got to fight you."

The poison dragon slayer groaned. But before he could respond, the door opened again, and a familiar blonde drifted in.

"Are you going to the Chamber of Secrets?" Luna Lovegood asked brightly.

Both Fairy Tail wizards groaned.

 *****And here's the third chapter! I had planned on an expedition into the Chamber, but not this soon, so we'll have to see how the rest of the story goes.*****


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter** **Four:**

Half an hour later, after intense negotiations, they were scouring the lavatory for the hidden entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. It took twenty five minutes for Luna to convince Lucy that it was a good idea to bring her along, and then five minutes to convince Cobra that allowing the girls to tag along was in his best interests.

Honestly, Lucy figured he wasn't willing to deal with more Natsu-induced headaches than he already was. The fire dragon slayer, despite being kept on the shortest leash possible, caused plenty of headaches for Lucy, let alone someone who could literally hear souls. She was honestly surprised that Cobra hadn't snapped yet and killed him.

"I've thought about it," he muttered from where he was searching the other side of the lavatory. "Don't tempt me."

As they were searching, Myrtle made her reappearance. "A _boy_?" she hissed with a scowl. "You let a boy into _my_ lavatory? I thought we were friends!"

"We're going to the Chamber of Secrets," Luna replied cheerfully, her wand wobbling precariously behind her ear as she stared up at the ceiling tiles. "If we want to open the door, we'll probably need him."

Myrtle didn't look convinced. "The last time a _boy_ was in my lavatory... _I died_ ," she whispered dramatically.

"You let Potter, Weasley, and the Defense professor in here four years ago," Lucy pointed out, squinting at a section of wall where she thought there might be a hidden passage. "They were boys too. What makes Cobra different?"

" _Harry_ ," Myrtle said, drawing herself upright, "is a _good_ boy. And that redheaded one was a _little_ boy. Whoever they had with them didn't want to be here. But this... _Cobra_ is neither good nor little."

"Damn straight," Cobra hissed under his breath.

"Myrtle," Lucy said patiently, turning to face the ghost. "We're not going to let him hang out in here. He's just going to come in and access the Chamber of Secrets. Remember how when Olive Hornby was teasing you about your glasses, and you came in here to get away?"

The ghost nodded eagerly, and seemed about ready to launch a dramatic reenactment of the last day of her life. Lucy hurried on with her point before she could start. "Well, we're looking to get away from people too. At least Cobra and I are. Luna's just in it to...I'm still not really sure why she wants to come along. Anyway, we wouldn't dream of asking you to share your lavatory, especially with a _boy_."

With a smile of approval, Myrtle pointed at one of the grubby sinks. "When _Harry_ opened the chamber, he hissed at that sink. I think he said it had a snake carved in it."

All three of them turned towards the sink, Luna getting there first. "Here's the snake!" she chirped, fingers resting on one of the taps.

Cobra shouldered Lucy aside so that he could stand closer to the tap. "What am I supposed to say to it?" he snapped at Myrtle.

"How would I know?" the ghost asked, tearing up as was her habit. " _I_ wasn't ever the one to open that dirty thing."

"You ask politely of course," Luna admonished. Both Fairy Tail wizards looked at her, then at each other, and Lucy shrugged, as if to say: _why not?_

"Open up," Cobra said, and both girls shook their heads.

"English," Lucy said when he glared at her. "Think as if you'd be talking to your snake."

Now his glare was murderous, and she honestly was wondering if she hadn't crossed some sort of line. But he turned back to the tap, and a strangled hissing noise came from his throat, as if it was being dragged out inch by painful inch.

But it seemed to do the job, even if it was probably a horribly accented and bastardized version of the command. The sinks shuddered, and a section of the wall slid away, revealing a large, dark hole.

Lighting the tip of her wand, Lucy leaned forward carefully. "Well, this is probably it," she said with a sigh as she noted how nasty the interior of the chute looked. "A large, slimy pipe. No stairs of course, because why would we we allowed just to walk down there?"

She squealed as Cobra gave her a shove, her feet almost slipping as she clung to the adjacent tap with all her might to keep herself from sliding down. When she had recovered enough for her breath to return to a semblance of normal, she glared at the poison dragon slayer. "Was that really necessary?"

"Stop dithering," he grumbled, motioning towards the opening. "Dinner's almost over, and even though it's more difficult to track you down here, it's still possible. Sparky's going to be looking for you."

Casting the strongest impertubable charm she could on her robes and schoolbag, Lucy sighed and jumped into the pipe. After a dizzying ride, she landed hard on a collection of small pointy objects.

As she was picking herself up and dusting off, glad to see that the charm had kept the muck from her robes, Luna appeared, coming off the slide as if it had been on a playground, not a grubby pipe originating in a girl's lavatory.

Cobra was not far behind, looking a bit green as he got up. "I closed the entrance," he said gruffly, dusting himself off. "And hopefully that ghost of yours doesn't tell."

"Myrtle won't," Luna said confidently.

"Why, because she's a lovely person?" Cobra asked sarcastically.

"No," Luna said, casting a _lumos_ charm. "Because after dinner, she goes and cries in the u-bend for a while until she goes to stalk the prefects' bath. Nobody would be able to ask her anything."

Lucy tried not to flinch as she realized that the floor underfoot was literally carpeted with the bones of small animals. Luna was busy looking around curiously, but Cobra was heading off down the passage.

Unsure of which one was the better to be left with, Lucy decided to choose both, and tapped Luna's arm. "Why don't we move on and see if we can't find the chamber itself?" she suggested, gesturing towards where Cobra had disappeared in the gloom. "We can always come back and explore this later."

The other blonde nodded, and Lucy cast her own _lumos_ as they trailed after Cobra.

* * *

Deep underneath the school, the passages looked as if they had once been well maintained. The stones in the walls were as neatly shaped as the ones in the main part of the school. Sconces for torches were stationed every so often, anything they held lost to decay.

Under her feet, the rodent bones shifted and cracked ominously, but Luna seemed unbothered by it. Returning her focus to the walls, Lucy wondered how long it had taken to make something like this. It almost seemed as if it could be its own castle, if it was large enough to be called one.

They found Cobra up ahead, examining the largest snakeskin Lucy had ever seen. "I take it that's the shed skin of the basilisk?" she commented, proud that there was only a slight tremor in her voice.

"Oooooh," Luna crooned, lifting her wand so she could examine it better. "This is almost as interesting as finding a Crumple-Horned Snorcack. I must remember to bring my camera next time. Daddy would love the pictures for an article."

"No articles," Cobra growled, turning away. "The point of me coming down here was to get peace and quiet. If someone publishes an article about the Chamber of Secrets, everyone's going to want to come down here."

Glancing apologetically at Luna, Lucy turned as well, trying to see what was ahead.

They didn't go much further before they had to stop. The tunnel had caved in at some point, with only a tiny hole allowing passage to the other side. Lucy studied Luna. _She_ might fit, but there was no way Lucy and Cobra would.

"Looks like I have a new research project," she muttered. Her fingers itched to do something _now_ , since they had come all this way, but she held herself back. Even as controlled as her blasting spells had become, there was no way she'd risk them in here, not where one misplaced explosion could bring the entire passage down on them.

"Try the curse breaking section," Luna supplied helpfully. "They probably get this a lot in the old tombs."

Mulling it over, Lucy turned around, back towards the pipe they had come from. "Is anyone opposed to me vanishing some of these bones?" she asked as they shifted under her feet. "They're really starting to get annoying."

Neither of them said anything, so Lucy carefully vanished small groups of bones, creating a clear trail for them to make it back to the pipe.

Standing at the opening, she realized a fatal flaw in their plans. "How are we supposed to get back up that?"

"Ask for stairs, of course!" Luna replied as if it was a silly question. The blonde turned to Cobra, who seemed surprised that she was willing to face him head on, and asked: "Some stairs please?"

Without a better idea, he started attempting to hiss at the pipe.

Eventually they got a set of stairs, ones that wound up through the pipe and were covered in gunk of unknown origins, just like the pipe surface. Again, Lucy took the lead, casting _scourgify_ spells as she went before any of them slipped and fell all the way back down. Somehow, the trip _up_ seemed to take less time than the trip _down_ , and she decided not to think about it.

Magic was a wonderful thing.

* * *

When she reached the Ravenclaw common room after serving her detention with Snape, Lucy was able to nearly bypass her guildmates.

Nearly.

Laxus was easy enough to do. She almost sprinted from the door to the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories, giving him no chance to disentangle himself from the Ravenclaws asking questions about their fake school of magic. What she hadn't expected was Levy predicting her actions and waiting for her in their dormitory.

The solid script mage was perched on the end of Lucy's bed, flipping through their Ancient Runes textbook.

Levy motioned towards Lucy's bed. "Take a seat."

Knowing that there was no way she was getting out of this conversation this time. Lucy sat.

With a flick of her wand, Levy closed the curtains around them, and another flick silenced them, making sure that nobody was going to hear their conversation. Their privacy assured, she faced Lucy with a stern look.

"Talk," she ordered.

"About what?" Lucy tried to stall. This was not a conversation she wanted to have right now. Especially not twice in one day.

"We're worried about you!" Levy hissed, eyes flashing. "Don't play dumb with me! We both know I'm not stupid, so treat me with that much respect at least."

"What do you want me to say?" Lucy replied with a shrug, just wanting to lay down and attempt to sleep. "That I'm oh so sorry and here's what's wrong? And then you can fix it and we can all move on with our happy little lives? Grow up Levy, it doesn't work like that. Not anymore, not for a long time."

"You think I don't know that?" Levy demanded, her hands clenching into fists. "I was in Tartaros too, Lucy. Gajeel and I nearly died too. Gajeel lost his dad. We all grew up a lot that day. Some things can't be fixed."

"Then why do you keep trying?" the blonde spat. "Maybe that only makes it hurt more."

"I said they can't be _fixed_ , not that they can't be _shared_. There's a difference."

"Maybe if there was someone to share them with, I would."

Levy threw up her hands in frustration. "We're all _here_ Lucy. We're all hurting, just the same as you are! And we want to help share it, to do what we can to help you."

"You sound like a self-help book," Lucy retorted, starting to pull off her shoes. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get some sleep."

The scream of frustration that came from the solid script mage made Lucy glad the curtains were silenced.

* * *

Maybe because Snape was a reasonable human being, or maybe because he just didn't want to deal with another incident involving Lucy trying to kill a student, but they weren't paired up to practice nonverbal spells during Wednesday's class.

Instead, he chose to lecture on the differences between a formal duel and the more casual _fight for your life_ brand of self defense. Potter managed to earn his own week's worth of detentions for cheeking the professor, and Lucy groaned as she realized her own detentions would have an audience.

She discovered that the best way to avoid Laxus and Levy during Ancient Runes was by sitting with the Slytherins. It was wonderful, having to keep her cover as a normal student, because it meant that she could do something ridiculous and just say she wanted to get to know the students from other houses, but Levy and Laxus couldn't make an issue of it without causing a scene. The same strategy won her quiet during the following period's Arithmancy lecture.

Unfortunately, it meant she had to make an appearance at lunch. Thankfully she delayed enough that there were no extra seats by Laxus and Levy, since the Ravenclaws were still attempting to pick every last bit of information out of their brains. There were plenty of seats near Luna though, and she was engrossed in the latest issue of _The Quibbler_. Sliding into the seat across from her fellow blonde, Lucy pulled out the newest translation they had been given in Ancient Runes and started working on it.

"You mistranslated that rune," Luna commented out of the blue. "It's _ehwaz_ , not _eihwaz_."

Lucy double checked the original source and her own translation. "That's definitely not either _ehwaz_ or _eihwaz_ ," she pointed out, finger tapping the rune in her book. "I don't know where you see it, but I don't think either one is being used in this translation."

"I meant here," Luna said, tapping her chest. "Partnership, not defense."

Shutting her book, Lucy gathered her things and packed them away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You do," Luna said, surprisingly firmly. "You just don't want to accept it."

* * *

Rattled by Luna's surprising commentary, Lucy mechanically took notes in potions, ignoring the worried glances Wendy and Levy were exchanging.

In retrospect, that was probably a bad idea.

After Potions ended, Levy and Jellal practically glued themselves to Lucy's side. Wendy blocked her path forward out of the classroom, hands on her hips. She looked surprisingly old for being only thirteen.

"You're coming with us," the tiny Hufflepuff said determinedly, her short hair accenting the sternness in her face. "It's past time we talked."

Without any escape plan that wouldn't draw too much unwanted attention to her, Lucy allowed herself to be frog marched to the Room of Requirement.

* * *

Everyone had gathered there, and Lucy felt herself tear up at the form the room had taken.

Down to the brawl in the center of the room, it was an exact replica of the guild hall.

"Lucy!" The calico cat that Happy was disguised as raced towards her, a whine in the exceed's voice. "Natsu won't give me a fish."

"Aren't the house elves feeding you?" Wendy asked with concern, looking around for the siamese that was Charle's glamoured form.

"They are," the scruffy black tomcat that hid Pantherlily's true form said as he approached with Charle. "Happy is simply upset that he can't fish with Natsu anymore."

Setting her schoolbag down on the table Erza was occupying with a cake that had to have been provided by the house elves, Levy looked at the tangle of limbs with a hint of despair. "They couldn't restrain themselves?"

Laxus snorted from where he was lounging against a wall. "They managed three days. I think that's a new record."

Most of the group laughed, and then Erza was persuaded to wade into the brawl and end it. When she was finished, Natsu, Gajeel, and Grey were all sporting identical black eyes and looked rather worse for wear. As they sat down around the large table Erza had commandeered, it stretched magically to accommodate them all.

Placed directly in the center, Lucy looked longingly at the seat Cobra occupied at the very end of the table, closest to the door. He seemed to catch the direction of her thoughts and pinned her with a venomous glare.

 _At least I'm not the only person unhappy about being here_.

Mest started it off, looking rather put on the spot, given that he kept glancing to Laxus and Levy as if he wished they'd take over.

"Lucy, we're worried about…"

"Stop right there Mest, I think I can recite this one myself. You're worried about me, because I don't eat and never spend time with anyone. Does that about sum it up?"

The former councilman winced. "Pretty much. Laxus said that it's about the disbandment…"

"Sure, let's go with that." _Among other things_.

"I know it's rough," Cana said lowly, her flask set aside for the moment. "I grew up there. It's the only home I had left. And now it's gone."

"And that's it?" Lucy said, deciding that she was tired of avoiding them. If it meant that they'd start staging interventions on a weekly basis, it was worth throwing them something to chew on. "You're just going to accept it and walk away?"

"What other choice to we have?" Levy said miserably, trading looks with Gajeel. "Master disbanded us."

"We're goddamn _Fairy Tail_ ," she hissed, slamming her hand down on the table as she shot to her feet. "We've told the goddamn _Magic Council_ to fuck off. And now we're just going to sit here and take this like we don't have a choice? When did we decide to just follow the rules others make for us like obedient little children?" Her anger and frustration was pushing her to use harsher language than usual, but she was absolutely done with the situation. "We _make_ a way to get what we want, and anything in our way gets trampled or gets the _hell_ out of our way."

"What would you have us do," Erza murmured "when we return and everyone's gone?"

"Find them!" Lucy spat. "Or have you all decided that we're better off without the guild? Because it that's so, why don't you just leave me alone. That's what you all were going to do, wasn't it?"

She had stopped talking to the table as a whole at this point. Her eyes were fixed on the members of Team Natsu, sitting together as a group at one end of the table.

Erza looked taken aback, as if she hadn't thought about it. Grey looked guilty, and Lucy couldn't help but be smugly satisfied by the expression on his face as he realized what would have happened if he had disappeared like he had planned. But Natsu?

He just looked confused.

And that made her angry.

"You were going to _leave_ ," she enunciated clearly, looking directly at him. "You were going to skulk off in the night and not even tell anyone to their face."

Natsu opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "Let me guess, you were going to leave a note? Probably at my house, right? Hmmm, and what would it say? _Hey, we're going away. See you. Take care of things at home._ Any of that sound like what you would write?"

His eyes widened in shock, and Lucy knew she hit it right on the money. It hurt her as much as she was hurting him. "And how did you think I'd take that Natsu? Think about it through the lens of what we know about what happened to the guild? How do you think I'd react to find the guild disbanding, my _teammates_ having left in the night without bothering to tell me? The very same guild and teammates that I have almost _died_ to protect? What did I say to you just before I almost got my skull crushed on Tenrou?"

She was twisting the knife in deeper, far deeper than warranted, but she wanted him to hurt. Wanted him to feel a fraction of what she had been feeling ever since he opened his mouth and said he had planned to leave.

"No, can't remember? It's okay," Lucy said, fake sympathy dripping from the words. "I remember just fine. _Because it's always more fun when we're together_. Isn't that right?"

"Lucy," Grey said, half rising from his chair. "Lucy, _stop_."

"No." They had pushed and pushed for her to talk to them, and she was going to make them hear it. "He deserves to take some responsibility and think about someone else for once."

"I'm sorry Luce," Natsu said, his voice the most apologetic he had ever been. "I mean, I just...after Igneel…"

"I know you lost your dad," she said slowly. "But you weren't the only one to lose someone."

"Well _yeah_ ," he said, nodding as he gestured to the other first generation dragon slayers at the table. "Gajeel and Wendy lost their parents too."

Throwing up her hands in frustration, Lucy reached into her robe and pulled out the fine gold chain that Virgo had brought her. Gently, she let it rest on the black expanse of her robes for everyone to see. It was the first time she had shown it to anyone since it had happened.

Levy was the first one to speak. "Lucy, is that…?"

"Yes," Lucy said, sinking back into her seat. "It used to be Aquarius's key."

"I didn't think anything could damage the gate keys," Jellal said slowly, speaking up for the first time.

"Nothing can," Cobra growled. It was easy to infer an unspoken _I tried_ on the end of his sentence, and Lucy threw a nasty look in his direction.

"What happened?" Grey asked, but before Lucy could say anything, Laxus said: "Future Lucy, the girl from the Infinity Clock incident, the guild, and Aquarius?"

Most of the room turned to look curiously at him, but Lucy just shook her head. "Close, but not quite."

"Jude Heartfilia died, and we capitalized on it to start the hunt for the pieces of the Infinity Clock," Cobra said, tipping back in his chair so that he could rest his boots on the table. "So princess over there has quite the list of people to say goodbye to. At least, that's the point she's trying to sell."

"Don't you talk about them," Lucy snarled, plunging her hand into her pocket for her wand. " _If it wasn't for you…_ "

"Do you think you're the only person to lose someone?" Cobra growled back. "Listen up _princess_. You're sitting at a table full of people who have lost someone. There's three former residents of the Tower of Heaven at this table. You think you had it bad because Daddy didn't love you? Can it. Kids at that tower were sold into fucking slavery by good old mum and dad. And don't tell me that marrying you off to some geezer was practically enslavement. You know _nothing_ about slavery."

He pointed to Grey. "That kid had his parents killed by a monster, lost his teacher to the same monster because he was an idiot, and lied to the kid who was practically his brother so that the kid thought he was a monster."

"Her father." The finger was pointing at Cana now, "Was a womanizer and a wanderer who didn't even bother to check back with his _wife_ to see if she had a child. Couldn't be bothered to look at her and wonder why she looked so much like his dead wife."

"Those two," he moved on to Juvia and Gajeel, "were members of a dark guild masquerading as a light guild. She made it rain for the first seventeen years of her life. Imagine what that did to her social life. And he's one of your pet dragon slayers. Lost dear old dad in x777 only to find him and lose him again in a single day."

"I don't know anything about Shorty Senior over here so it can't be that traumatic," Cobra continued, pointing at Levy who bristled, "but Shorty junior has had a time. Lost mummy, and wandered around for a while until tattoo face over here dropped her off with a load of dead people. And of course, she found and lost mummy again a few months ago."

The poison dragon slayer's finger moved on to point at Natsu. "And we all know the idiot's story so unless anyone wants the highlights, I'll move on to the alcoholic council member who can't stop tampering with his own memories. Not only can he not remember where his loyalties actually lie, he got to watch the dear old Magic Council get blown to bits and held his best buddy Captain Stick-Up-His-"

"Enough," Mest growled, the scar on his cheek striking against the paleness of his complexion. "Move on."

"And finally," Cobra said, sarcasm dripping from his words as he gestured towards Laxus, "we come to Daddy's little science experiment, and Grandpa's delinquent screw up. While daddy didn't love you and might have tried to sell you off to a creepy old man, at least he didn't stick a fucking lacrima in your head."

Seeing the snarling faces of most of the table, Cobra let his chair drop down to all four legs and stood up. "Seeing as how I've just pissed off the entire table, I think that justifies my leaving early. Yay for me."

They watched in silence as he left, not really sure if the poison dragon slayer had torn them all to shreds, exposing their personal history in such a callous manner to be cruel, or just to get out of the group meeting.

Jellal cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, getting back on track…"

Lucy performed a quick _tempus_. "I have detention with Snape."

Collecting her bag, she took one last look around the room. "It's been _fun_ everyone," she said dryly, tucking Aquarius's key back under her robes. "We've just _got_ to do this again sometime."

As she left, she couldn't deny that she felt a bit lighter, having gotten a lot of what she had been holding back out for once.

 *****Oops, this got long. I thought about stopping it at lunch with Luna, or somewhere in the intervention, but Angry!Lucy kind of took over and well...we got this. My apologies if anyone was bothered by the swearing, but Lucy was angry/frustrated, and Cobra was...Cobra.*****


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Five:**

The next day was oddly quiet. Lucy assumed that her outburst from the failed intervention the night before had quashed most of the ardor of the Fairy Tail contingent. Even Natsu was surprisingly subdued, the few times she saw him during the day.

Potter was sullenly silent during detention that night, allowing Lucy to trade vicious glances with each other in peace. She still had not forgiven him for the Infinity Clock incident, and after he belittled her the night before she was furious with him.

Part of her had to admit that Cobra had been right. In the scheme of things, her life hadn't been all that bad. But she couldn't diminish the losses that she had been slammed with since they returned from Tenrou, one after another, leaving her with almost no time to grieve the previous loss before the next happened.

Lucy spent most of Friday seething about it. Without any classes to attend, she spent most of the day in the library, doing homework and looking up ways to stabilize and repair the caved in roof of the tunnel leading to the Chamber of Secrets. By the time dinner was over and she was reporting to detention, she had a fair list of spells and a reasonable handle on how to perform them. She also was tired of Cobra's smirking face every time he caught her glaring at him.

Snape seemed to sense that she was about to boil over. As she and Cobra stalked through the doors, he cleared a section of the classroom with a flick of his wand.

"Duel," he snapped , gesturing at the four lines that now outlined a fairly large rectangle on his floor. "Until one of you forces the other out. Otherwise they'll find you duelling in the corridors, and then _I'll_ have to deal with Mr. Oracion. Potter, you'll be doing lines again. Take a seat, and take out a quill and parchment."

Potter grumbled under his breath behind Lucy as he brushed by her to take one of the front row desks, but she was too busy staring wide-eyed at Snape to notice much more.

Yes, she'd welcome the chance to hex Cobra, but would she really be allowed to do so in front of Potter?

Cobra seemed to be thinking along similar lines, given the way his eye flicked between Potter and the duelling ring that Snape had set up. With a flick of his wand, a lightly glowing barrier formed, half a meter outside the boundaries of the arena. Snape beckoned them inside, and Lucy carefully stepped through.

"No sound will escape from here, and no spells will either, so it's quite safe for Mr. Potter to be here. As it is, I doubt much more than the Dark Lord himself would be able to draw his attention; he's rather thick that way."

It probably wasn't something she should have laughed at, given Potter's significance to the war effort, but Lucy did. As Snape stepped outside the barrier, she faced Cobra and curtsied slightly, mocking his use of the nickname _princess_ for her.

The bow he sketched out for her was just as mocking.

And then they began. Neither of them were using verbal spells, Cobra's soul listening magic giving him the advantage over Lucy from the start. She stayed away from her blasting spells, despite being excellent at them, because she was certain that if she blasted Cobra into small bits of dragon slayer, Snape would have her scrubbing the classroom by hand. Besides, then everyone would look at her with that same disappointed look, and she didn't want to give them reason for another intervention.

Both of them knew there was really no way she could win. Even their Order of the Phoenix teachers from the summer hadn't been able to beat Cobra in a duel, even when all he knew was the disarming charm. His soul listening magic simply couldn't be beat, even in this world. Both of the aurors who had taught them had some form of Occlumancy, which was some type of mental barriers to prevent someone from entering your mind, and even that didn't work to keep Cobra out.

So Lucy threw everything she had at Cobra from the very start, knowing that she may not get another chance to hex him like this and wanting to make it count. He returned the favor, making her shield or dive out of the way as he flung hexes and jinxes at her, sometimes simply reflecting her own back at her.

As much as it was motivated by anger, Lucy felt freer than ever. She hadn't had the chance to go all out in a non-life or death situation since...ever. Once she joined Fairy Tail, she seemed to tumble from one life-threatening situation to another. Losing was never an option, even though it seemed to happen quite often. But up until Tartaros, there was always someone to back her up if needed.

Until there wasn't, and Aquarius let her gate key be sacrificed to free the others.

Thinking about it made her angry again, self-loathing churning in her gut and eating away the peace she had found in the all out fight. She hadn't been strong enough, and Aquarius had been the price. In retrospect, it was a small price to pay, but that didn't make it any less painful.

Eventually, Cobra nailed her with a well cast _tarantallegra_ that she cancelled too late, the excessive motion causing her knee to give out, sending her tumbling out of the ring Snape had created.

Sitting in an awkward heap on the floor, Lucy sighed. It was over, and she wasn't certain Cobra had moved at all. While it felt like a blow to her ability, she kept telling herself that Cobra probably would win against the headmaster if he went up against the old man. The nature of his magic granted him an almost incomparable advantage.

Looking around, she saw Snape leaning against his desk, arms crossed over his chest as he watched them. In front of him, Potter worked dutifully at his lines, sneaking glances at the professor every so often, a scowl on his face.

Seeing that Lucy was in no shape to continue the duel, Snape cancelled the charms creating their arena. The sound of Potter's quill filled the silence, and Lucy pulled herself upright using a nearby desk for support. Limping to the front of the room where she had dropped her bag at the beginning of the detention, she lowered herself into the chair and automatically cast a warming charm on her knee. It wouldn't do much, but hopefully by the time Snape released them she'd be able to make it the whole way back to Ravenclaw Tower.

Cobra dropped into a nearby chair, and Snape fixed the desks with a wave of his wand. "Are you finished, Miss Heartfilia and Mr. Oracion?"

"Yes sir," she replied, massaging her knee through her robes. Most of her immediate anger with the poison dragon slayer was exhausted, leaving her with only the residual anger from the Infinity Clock incident.

Cobra grunted, but it seemed more like agreement than anything negative.

"Then your detentions are over. I expect not to have reason to give you them in the future. If I do, they will be decidedly less...pleasant."

Dismissing them, he started haranguing Potter about his atrocious handwriting. As the door closed behind them, Lucy turned to Cobra. "Did we just reveal too much?" She hadn't been thinking about keeping their skills hidden from Snape, since he was a Hogwarts professor, but he was also the Order's spy, which meant he spent a fair bit of time with Voldemort.

The poison dragon slayer shrugged. "He definitely allowed it because he wanted to see what we were capable of. But I don't think he's going to use it against us. Yet."

"Do you not trust _him_ , or do you not trust people?" Lucy asked as they reached the stairs.

"People, mostly," Cobra grunted. "There's really only five people that I trust unconditionally."

She decided that she'd be pushing her luck to ask him for the list. Instead, she bid him goodnight, and started the slow process of returning to Ravenclaw Tower, thinking longingly of her comfortable bed.

* * *

Saturday was a relaxing break from classes.

It was a gorgeous day, and having heard enough tales of the terrible Scottish winters, Lucy joined most of the student population outside on the grounds. Curled up in a sunny nook by the greenhouses, Lucy worked on her homework, keeping an eye on the students roaming the ground. Natsu and Gajeel were outside as well, with Erza and Jellal supervising from their chosen spot on the shoreline of the Black Lake as the two dragon slayers cavorted in the sunshine.

Laxus came out with her after lunch, bringing his Ancient Runes work to accompany her Arithmancy, and they moved into a more central location by the lake with most of the students. Erza and Jellal had retired inside, but Grey had joined the two dragon slayers in their attempts to outdo each other in their charms work. Wendy was chatting with a group of Hufflepuffs a little ways down the lake, and Juvia seemed to be lurking among them, keeping an eye on Grey.

Cana dropped down next to them, empty-handed and miserable. They hadn't been able to curtail the drinking completely, but they had been able to negotiate it down to _whenever the students can't see you_. Which basically meant in the Room of Requirement or Mest's office.

"You two are nerds," she announced to them, and the students within hearing range. "Always doing homework and stuff like that when you could be having fun."

With a roll of his eyes, Laxus scratched down another translated line. "Just because some of us are serious about our studies," he muttered. "Besides, Freed would kill me if I spent a year here and didn't learn anything about runes."

"You don't study runes at your school?" Granger asked, drifting closer from where she and the other two members of the Gryffindor trio that caused most of the drama at school were lounging.

Lucy had been wondering when the students would feel comfortable enough to start asking questions. Laxus shrugged, tapping his quill against the source material he was translating. "I don't. McGarden studied them on the side, and my...best friend studied them extensively. We use a different runic system though, and he'll be upset that he missed out on the chance to study these."

Thankfully, the pause while Laxus tried to figure out how to best describe the leader of the Raijinshu was small enough that the trio didn't notice. Granger looked as if she was going to keep interrogating them on the differences between what they studied, but the ginger blurted out: "You can't all be sixteen."

The three Fairy Tail members looked at each other and sighed. They had known that this was going to be an issue. It was easy enough to predict, since most of them were eighteen, but you had outliers like Laxus, Jellal, and Cobra who were in their twenties, the latter two almost thirty, and Wendy, who was fourteen as far as they could figure.

"Some of us are seventeen," Lucy said with a shrug. "There were a few people whose parents held them back, so they're always the oldest in the class."

"No, seriously," Weasley continued, despite Granger doing all that she could to shut him up. "Dreyar can't be a sixth year."

"Aging potion," Cana said with a straight face. "He, Fernandes, and Oracion all tried sneaking out for firewhiskey one night and managed to make it permanent. So on the books they're still sixth years, even if they look like they should have graduated."

"And that Hufflepuff?" the redhead continued, looking over at Wendy. "She looks like a fourth year."

 _That's because she is. How are you getting us out of this one, Cana?_

"Haven't you ever heard of people who look younger than they actually are?" the brunette snorted. "Wendy is going to be the envy of everyone else as she ages."

"What potion did she use on her hair?" another Gryffindor asked drawing closer with a few others. "That color can't be natural."

"It is," Lucy replied easily. "Best as we can tell, it was probably accidental magic as a kid. She and Levy can't remember having hair any other color. Same with Fernandes, Lockser, and Dragneel. They're all naturally predisposed to oddly colored hair."

For a few moments, the girls looked skeptical, and then they settled into pouts. "So," one of them said, settling down for a chat. "Tell us, are you two siblings?"

Snickering, Lucy looked at Laxus, who seemed totally blindsided by the conversation's new focus. "Nope, not siblings. We're not dating either."

"But Padma said she saw him carrying you the other day," the second girl said. "How come you aren't dating?" Studying her, Lucy realized that she must have a twin in Ravenclaw, the name sounding familiar. One of her dormmates perhaps? She hadn't been social enough to retain all their names. _Perhaps Levy would know_.

"I have a knee injury, and overdid it a bit that day," Lucy explained, shifting so that they could see the knee brace wrapped around her leg. "Laxus was kind enough to help me back to the dorm."

"Are any of you dating?" the original questioner asked, ignoring how shell shocked Potter and Weasley looked, and the scandalized glances Granger kept throwing them as she attempted to peak at Laxus's rune translation.

Cana grinned wolfishly, the sight sending shivers down Lucy's spine. "Well...McGarden and Redfox act like they've had a _moment_ recently, but nobody can confirm that. So bets are still open there. Lockser's in love with Fullbuster, but something happened lately because she's toned it down."

All of them glanced automatically towards Grey, who had predictably lost his shirt somewhere along the way while he was competing to outdo Natsu and Gajeel in their charms work. Juvia and Wendy were sitting with several other Hufflepuffs nearby, but the rain woman seemed relatively relaxed, especially considering the number of appreciative looks aimed at Grey.

"Anyway," Cana continued smugly. "We used to be taking bets on Dragneel and Heartfilia here, but I think snowballs in hell have better odds. More's the pity though. We used to have some really good betting on those two."

"Hey!" Lucy protested, but Cana had moved on. "The real money these days is on Fernandes and Scarlet. Those two take the cake."

"Why is that?" the girl who must have a sister in Ravenclaw. "They seem awkward around each other."

"They have a _history_ ," Cana proclaimed, settling in for story time. "Grew up together, you see? And there was this chick who was messing with people, and she made it look like Fernandes had been possessed, and he got into a lot of trouble. He's still making up for it now. But he really hurt Erza, and now he feels that he's too tarnished for her, so he told her he had a fiancee."

"And does he?" the other girl asked, the one who had started the train of thought.

" _As if_ ," Cana snorted.

* * *

The next week passed without incident. Potter finished his detentions with Snape, and met with the headmaster one night. Erza and the other Gryffindors reported that he seemed...slightly shaken when he returned to the common room afterwards, but otherwise seemed to follow what they were calling his normal pattern of behavior.

Quidditch tryouts for the Gryffindor team were the following Saturday. All of the other houses had already held their tryouts, so most of the school was interested in seeing what kind of team the Lions would put together with Potter as Captain.

"I don't understand the purpose of this game," Lucy confided in Levy as they climbed into the bleachers with what seemed like half the school to watch the trials. "I mean, I get the rules and everything. Score with the quaffle, and end it by catching the snitch. But honestly, who needs balls that are literally enchanted to hurt people?"

Levy giggled as she saw the contingent of Fairy Tail men in the stands, eagerly discussing the sport that they had been banned from playing. After several of the school brooms had been destroyed in a scrimmage, the professors and the saner members of the guild had decided to leave the quidditch to the true students.

That didn't stop Natsu from watching eagerly and quibbling good-naturedly with Gray as Gajeel looked on with barely concealed interest in the background. Erza was looking at the witches trying out with envy clear on her face, Jellal sitting next to her with a wistful look on his face.

"Juvia does not understand either," the rain woman said as they settled into their chosen seats, watching Potter attempt to organize the other half of the school into some semblance of order. "What is the point of bludgers?"

"For funsies," Cana said, taking a discreet swig from her flask, grinning sharklike as she watched the trials. Lucy was fairly certain that she had watched each house's trials, just to get an idea of the odds she should offer once the season was in full swing. "Carnage adds to the entertainment."

"It's barbaric," Granger called from a few rows below them, watching Potter send a group of students so small they had to be first years on a lap around the pitch. "At least when Fred and George were here, Gryffindor didn't have to worry too much about bludgers." She paused for a moment, and then added under her breath: "Unless you have house elves attempting to save your life."

Wendy wrung her hands nervously as one of the first years nearly crashed into a goal post. "What happens when people do get hurt?"

"They try to patch them up as best as they can," Granger admitted, wincing as another first year nearly wiped out on a turn. "But during a game, there usually aren't reserve players, so they just play through it unless it's too bad. Harry once caught a snitch with a broken arm."

"Barbaric," Lucy agreed, snickering as Potter cleared the field of non-Gryffindor students. "Totally barbaric."

Eventually, Potter scraped together a team, but not without several embarrassing mishaps for the potential players and a nifty little _confundus_ that Granger cast on the only serious candidate for Keeper other than Weasley. As they were leaving the stands, Lucy caught her eye, nodded towards the seventh year who had narrowly lost the Keeper's position, and raised her eye.

She at least had the decency to blush.

Wondering if that was an offense punishable by expulsion, Lucy contemplated reporting it. Surely the "golden girl" wouldn't have risked getting expelled just to win her boyfriend a place on the team? Especially since most of the school was watching the trials. Did she think she was good enough that she wouldn't be caught? Even though her spell was nonverbal, Lucy had caught the twitch of her wand and noted how McLaggen lurched _away_ from the goal he should have been protecting.

As the Gryffindor trio wandered down to visit with the gamekeeper, Lucy tipped her head towards the distant figure heading towards the lone tree that stood well apart from the Forbidden Forest. "I'm going to go take a walk," she murmured to Levy, who followed her line of sight. "Send one of the boys after me if I'm not back soon."

The blunette looked unhappy with the decision, but she let Lucy slip off, distracting the other Fairy Tail members with a discussion about lunch; which, despite its simplistic nature, was enough to distract the dragon slayers, and throwing in a mention of cake brought Erza on board as well. Leaving the main group of students returning to the castle, Lucy went off after the blonde boy disappearing in the distance.

She caught up with Draco Malfoy just out of reach of the Whomping Willow.

Turning to face her, the customary sneer was missing as Malfoy asked: "Are you following me?"

"I've heard things about this tree," Lucy said absently, watching him out of the corner of her eye as she faced the tree. "Not too long after it was planted, someone lost an eye." Remus Lupin, former Marauder, had been the tutor for the castle and its grounds. They had been taught about each and every secret passage that existed in the castle and on its grounds, even if they were blocked in or being watched due to tightened security.

"And you just happened to decide that right _now_ is the best time to take it in?" Malfoy replied incredulously.

"Maybe I wanted to know why someone would go near the tree in the first place," she replied easily with a shrug of her shoulders. "I mean, as interesting as a homicidal tree is, I'm sure it gets old after six years."

"Why are you here?" Malfoy asked suddenly, turning on her with anger in his eyes. "And don't give me shite about being interested in the tree. Why are you lot here, and why this year? Haven't you seen the _Prophet_? We're at war. Hardly a good time for an exchange program."

"Maybe we wanted to see Hogwarts badly enough that a war wasn't enough to deter us?" Lucy mused, her eyes still fixed on the tree. "Or maybe we're used to war, so this doesn't bother us."

"Nobody's ever heard of the Fiore School of Magic," Malfoy hissed. "It's not in any of the books, nobody's ever heard of it."

"We're selective, haven't you heard? From our very birth, we've belonged to Fiore." It was the truth. In a fashion.

"If that's so, where are your famous alumni? Where are your awards for excellence?"

"We like to fly under the radar," Lucy said, enjoying the confused look on Malfoy's face. "It's a muggle phrase. We like to be undetected. You won't find our alumni in any of your books or your pedigrees. Blood purity doesn't interest us, only magic. And a healthy dose of adventure." Because that's what Fairy Tail was about. Family, and adventure. Endless wonder.

"It's impossible," the blonde spluttered, outrage lending color to his face. "There's nothing that can be completely hidden."

" _There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy_ ," Lucy quoted, turning to face the school. "Open your mind Malfoy. There's a whole wide world out there."

Malfoy paled drastically, so quickly that Lucy wondered if he wouldn't pass out. Seeing a familiar head of blond hair heading towards her, she started back towards the school, calling over her shoulder. "We don't have to be like our parents."

It was a calculated guess, based on Lucius Malfoy's imprisonment for being a Death Eater, and the reasonable guess that Draco was being pushed to follow in his father's footsteps. But from the way Malfoy's eyes narrowed, Lucy wondered what she would find if she pushed up his left sleeve.

Laxus met her halfway between the Whomping Willow, eyes narrowed as he looked at the distant figure of Malfoy, still standing by the tree. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"I think he might be a Death Eater," Lucy said grimly, heading for the Great Hall. "At the very least, he'll be one soon, if someone or something doesn't intervene."

 *****I have to say, the things you don't realize you need until you start writing HP fanfiction. Like a map of the Hogwarts grounds. But thankfully there's a whole lot of people on the internet that had that problem first.**

 **Other than that, some plot advancement. Cobra and Lucy fighting it out in detention because there would be too much paperwork if they fought in the halls. Draco-is-a-death-eater. Girl talk. Not much going on.*****


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Six:**

They had called an emergency meeting in Mest's office, cramming it full enough that there was just enough room for them to breathe and Lucy ended up sharing his desk with Wendy, Juvia, Levy, and Cana.

In the end, they couldn't do anything. They had no evidence besides suspicion, and the Order of the Phoenix had their hands tied. All they could do was watch and wait.

It left Lucy with a bad taste in her mouth. All her life she had been sitting on the sidelines, letting things happen to her and reacting to them. She had been content with that once, but no longer. Now she wanted to be in the forefront, stopping the bad things from happening.

At least she wasn't alone in that feeling. All of the Fairy Tail members were chafing at the bit to _do_ something now that they had a suspected threat. Cana tried searching out the cards, but all she got were vague foretellings of disaster; nothing concrete to act on.

"It's not a science," she hissed at Cobra, who had just told her to find out specifics. "I don't just ask my cards for a date and time. It doesn't work like that. All I can get are general predictions."

The meeting ended on a sour note, all of them returning to their respective houses dissatisfied.

* * *

Potter and his friends seemed somewhat less wary around the Gryffindor members of the group, which was a success. At least, until you took into account the way they shrouded half their conversations in some awful muffling charm that drove the dragon slayers batty.

"It's this awful buzzing sound," Natsu complained one day as they were lounging around the Room of Requirement discussing their progress and observations. "They spend entire class periods using that thing. It _hurts_."

"Speak for yourself," Cobra grunted, lying on his back on the floor, his arm over his face. "You don't have my hearing."

Lucy winced. She and Luna had joined Cobra on two further expeditions to the tunnels leading to the Chamber of Secrets since the original trip, and they had the cave in mostly cleared up. In those two trips, she had realized exactly how sensitive the dragon slayer's hearing could be. A minor rockslide, triggered by one of her spells to repair the fallen rocks, had been loud enough and then amplified by the echoes in the tunnel that it had ruptured his eardrum.

She had been slightly alarmed at the thin trickle of blood coming from his ear, but he had shaken off her concern, saying that it happened all the time when he was around loud noises. Luna had simply conjured him a pair of fluffy purple earmuffs to wear.

Surprisingly enough, he had.

They were the same purple as his eyes. Lucy wasn't sure if Luna was just perceptive, or if she had a death wish.

"Anyway, we don't know anything more about what Malfoy might be up to, and the trio are plotting something." Laxus summarized with a sigh. "Who's watching the trio right now?"

"Jellal," Erza said, looking up from sharpening her sword. "And Gajeel's watching Malfoy."

"Who's switching with them?" Mest asked, looking up from the report he was putting together for the headmaster.

"Natsu's watching Quidditch practice tomorrow, so I'll be keeping an eye on them for all of tomorrow," Erza replied. "I don't know who's switching with Gajeel."

"Drunk has dibs on tomorrow, and I've got Saturday," Cobra said with a roll of his eyes. "Honestly. Do you think we really plan this shit? Metal-face has the ferret for now, and when it makes sense, we'll switch. You lot don't know how to do surveillance."

"And how would you do it?" Grey challenged. "Tell us, oh expert criminal."

Cobra flashed him a toothy grin as he sat up, managing to look perfectly menacing at the same time. "Easy. Surveillance is useless if the target knows they're being watched. Assigning people in the same rotation is easy to spot. The changeover is easy to slip away during if your mark is smart. Potter may not be a genius, but using his cloak he could give us the slip and make us waste valuable time tracking him down again."

Warming up to his topic the poison dragon slayer continued: "The best surveillance is done when your target thinks you're doing something else. Doing homework in the library. Nobody thinks that a kid doing homework is paying attention to something other than the book in front of him. Having a conversation at lunch. Goofing off near the Quidditch pitch during practice. All of it is stuff that looks perfectly natural, but you can be watching your mark at the same time. When you're watching a person, the best thing for you to do is insert yourself into the background. You're just another accessory to the scene. None of this watching them for twelve hours and then switching."

Mest nodded absently, making a note on his parchment. "He has a point."

Half the room gaped at the former council mage, and the other half just sighed. Cobra looked smug.

"If that's all, let's call it a night everyone. Try the new method of watching our targets for the next few days and see if it makes a difference." Rolling up his parchment, Mest rubbed at his eyes before making his way to the door. "I'll see you in the morning."

* * *

Sitting and waiting was hard.

Fairy Tail had always been about action. Finding out who was causing trouble and taking them out. It had been fairly easy to suspect Draco Malfoy of Death Eater ties. But without permission, they couldn't expose him and confirm their theories.

Still struggling with nightmares, Lucy took to sitting up late, nestled in one of the comfortable window seats with the curtains drawn around her. The night of the full moon, the last Friday of September, she was curled up with a text on defensive spellwork on her lap, looking out the window at the stars. Naming them had become a thing of habit ever since she had started to learn Celestial Magic. Now it was a comfort. Even if this world was completely different, the stars remained the same.

Movement out on the grounds caught her eye, and she peered down into the darkness. A silvery patronus darted across the grounds, coming towards her window. As she watched, it came right up to her, and she easily recognized Erza's leopard patronus.

"Potential breach by the Willow," the cat recited in Erza's calm voice. "Titania and Salamander investigating. Siegrain remaining with Bambi."

Setting aside her book, Lucy took the stairs up to her dormitory as quickly as she could. Casting a general silencing charm around Levy's bed, she drew back the curtains and shook the solid script mage roughly.

"Erza sent a patronus," she whispered as Levy's eyes flickered open. "Get dressed. I'm going to get Laxus."

The boys dormitory was laid out in exactly the same manner, but it was difficult to see who belonged to each bed, since all of the curtains were drawn. But in the dark, she spotted the heavy coat that Laxus hadn't been willing to give up hanging from the posts of the bed furthest from the door.

Using another silencing spell, Lucy whipped open Laxus's curtains and stumbled backwards with a squeak of surprise. At the same time, Laxus sat upright, blinking sleep from his eyes. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Lucy powered on, clearing her throat awkwardly. "Patronus. From Erza. Thought we should be ready."

Laxus reached for the slacks on the nearby chair but made no other move. After a minute, he tipped his head towards the door. Squeaking again, Lucy hightailed it out the door. Safely out on the stairs, she tried to banish the sight of Laxus in...presumably nothing from the way the blanket was draped around his hips…

Levy was in the common room, robes forsaken for the time being, her wand in one hand and her light pen tucked behind her ear. Her serious look dissolved into a giggle as she turned to look at Lucy. "You look like you saw something up there," the girl snickered. "What, do they all sleep in the nude?"

Shaking her head, Lucy wished that being on the same team as Grey had granted her an immunity from nudity related blushing. Apparently not, if the sight of a naked Laxus had caused this vibrant of a reaction in her, given how warm her face was feeling.

"You won't be able to fight in that," Levy pointed out, gesturing to Lucy's student robes. "You probably have a minute to change. Or at least transfigure them."

"No need, hime," a familiar voice said as Virgo appeared in a flash of gold. "I have clothing for you."

Sighing, Lucy took the clothes the spirit offered, glad to note that the spirit had chosen practical clothing, not the short skirts and tube tops Lucy had once thought were appropriate for fights. Now? Enough destruction of her clothing had convinced her that practical was better. Especially after coming to Hogwarts.

Levy conjured a privacy screen by the fireplace. "Go ahead and change, it should take Laxus another minute to get down here."

Once she had changed and sent Virgo back to the Spirit World, Lucy vanished the privacy screen. Laxus was standing at the window, looking out at the darkened grounds.

Or rather, not so dark, given the bursts of flame that appeared sporadically.

"Looks like we're invited to a party," Laxus commented. "Are you two ready?"

"I already sent messages to Juvia and Cana," Levy said, opening the window with a flick of her wand. "They'll convene with the professors and figure out how to proceed from there."

"So we're backing up Erza and Natsu then?" Laxus confirmed before tugging Levy close to his side. "Sorry about this Levy, Lucy, but it's the fastest way to get out there."

Allowing herself to be pressed against the lightning dragon slayer's side, Lucy felt the hairs on her arms stand on their end as Laxus transported them out of the common room.

They landed on the lawn, ducking as a jet of spellfire flew over their heads.

"Sorry," called Erza, taking aim at a large, dark, shaggy form. "But the werewolves came to party tonight."

"The full moon," Levy said, glancing up at the sky. "Do we know from where?"

"Whomping Willow tunnel," Erza replied, attempting to stun another werewolf. "Natsu's keeping more from joining us, but there's about a dozen on the grounds."

"Levy, alert the others," Laxus ordered, sending a wolf yelping away with a sharp lightning shock to the rear. "Lucy, keep them off her while she does."

Nodding, Lucy drew her wand to cover her friend. Two wolves converged on them, but a combination of a tripping jinx and an overpowered banishing charm sent them flying away. Werewolves were notoriously difficult to stun, making it difficult to actually _stop_ them.

It seemed like only seconds later when a fox patronus returned to them, Grey's voice saying: "We've been ordered to fall back and protect the school."

Now _that_ made no sense. But Lucy paired up with Erza and Levy, making their way slowly back towards the school as ordered while Laxus went to go retrieve Natsu. They were dogged every step of the way by the wolves, who were nothing if not tenacious.

By the time they reached the front doors, Lucy's knee was aching, and she was exhausted. But she pushed on, seeing Gajeel and Grey in the doorway waiting for them, wands working furiously as they repelled the wolves who had beaten the trio to the castle.

Just inside the doors, the rest of the Fairy Tail contingent waited, wands drawn, with several of the professors. As they staggered inside, a flash of lightning darted past them, resolving itself into Laxus and a struggling Natsu.

Grey and Gajeel closed the doors, and McGonagall immediately set to warding them as several loud thunks could be heard. Flitwick joined her, their wands moving in tandem.

"Well done," the headmaster said, looking at the doors. "It appears as if the wards on the Willow's passage were not enough."

"With all respect," Lucy snapped, exhaustion and frustration overriding her good manners. "Why the _hell_ aren't we out there fighting?"

"Why waste your strength?" Dumbledore responded. "It makes more sense to fortify the castle for the night. Greyback will not risk his pack, so they will be gone when the sun rises. For now, our strength is best used ensuring that the castle's defenses hold."

"What would you have us do?" Mest asked with a warning glance at Lucy.

"Pair off and watch the ground floor entrances," the headmaster responded, sweeping away in a whirl of purple robes. "We will fix the gap in our security in the morning."

 _A gap in security_? Lucy thought incredulously. _A gap in security, he calls the pack of fully transformed werewolves roaming the grounds_. But she obediently looked to Mest for instruction.

Mest, in turn, looked to Laxus.

The lightning dragon slayer sighed and surveyed the assembled wizards. "We have four main hallways, and the doors to defend. Professors, if you would pair up, counting Mest as one of you, and leave one pair to watch the doors. The other pair will roam, backing up the other groups. Now, for Fairy Tail…"

Taking a breath, he closed his eyes. "Wendy, you head up to the infirmary and stay with the matron. We might need you later. Erza, you and Grey will handle the North corridor. Natsu, you and Juvia will back up whoever's at the doors. Gajeel, you take Levy and watch the South corridor. Cana, you'll be with me in the East corridor. Cobra, you and Lucy have the West corridor." He paused for a moment. "Try not to kill each other."

Exchanging glares with Cobra, who she still hadn't completely forgiven for ridiculing everything she had been through, Lucy nodded. All of the pairings and locations made sense. He had split the pairings between a more offensive fighter and a more defensive fighter, and tried to pair people who were used to working together. Natsu and Juvia made more sense than pairing her with Natsu, since the rain woman would be able to put out any fires he started. And of the defensive fighters? Well, she was the only one who might possibly be able to work with Cobra, even considering that they were still at each other's throats.

A quick conference between the professors saw Snape and McGonagall taking up position by the door, and Flitwick trotting over to Mest and motioning to one of the secret passages that Lucy vaguely remembered leading to a shortcut across the ground floor. Most students didn't use it because they usually didn't need to cut directly across the ground floor, so it was little known.

With a sigh, Lucy turned to Cobra. "We should get going."

He grunted at her, turning on his heel to lead the way down the hall towards their assigned corridor, bypassing the doors to the Great Hall as he went. Sharing a wry grin with Levy, Lucy hurried after him, tucking her wand back up her sleeve and making sure her keys were still on her belt.

* * *

The western corridor was filled with the low howling of wolves.

As closest to the Whomping Willow, it wasn't surprising. It would be the first point of entry from the werewolves if word had propagated that the main doors were being held against them. Cobra was likely the most immediately dangerous of the dragon slayers, and had the ability to take out the most enemies in a single shot. Of course, he might also poison his allies, but that seemed inconsequential in the scheme of things.

Without conversation, they split up, each covering about half of the long corridor, pacing as the howls grew closer and closer. As the windows started rattling, Lucy paused in her steps and looked towards the glass.

Featureless shapes threw themselves against the glass, causing the tall windows to tremble ominously against the assault. Drawing closer, Lucy saw the tiny cracks start to spread from the impact point.

Hogwarts had stood for a thousand years. It had survived countless wars and assaults upon the castle in that time. But the defenses always needed shoring up by the staff, led by the headmaster. And Lucy had noticed the burnt, blackened state of Dumbledore's arm, and how exhausted he had looked for most of the summer. He was looking better now, but he only sporadically made appearances at meals. Mest reported that when he made his reports, he simply left them on the headmaster's desk.

With only three staff members supporting the ailing headmaster with maintaining the wards during a direct attack on the castle, the wards were stretched thin. If Lucy had understood the brief strategy session on the castle's magical defenses, most of the defenses were concentrated around the four house dormitories. At least the students would be protected, even if the castle's initial defenses fell.

One of the top panes of one of the center windows fell out, shattering ominously on the floor in a million tiny glass shards. A flick of her wand had the pane back in its place, but Lucy knew that it was only a suggestion of what was to come.

"Cobra" she called, pitching her voice just over the increased calls of the werewolves outside. "We need to reinforce the defenses."

Without a word, he pointed his wand at the windows, and she saw his lips moving but didn't hear him speaking the spells that they had all learned by heart. They hadn't ever expected to use them, but the headmaster had insisted McGonagall teach them the spells so that they would be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Her own wand tracing through the spells, looping back to the beginning every time she reached the end, a single loop of spellwork meant to keep intruders from entering the castle. Linked into the wards as she was, she could _feel_ the wolves outside threatening to break through. Most of her attention was focused on the west side of the school, but she could feel the others through her link to the wards. Laxus's presence felt like a static shock through the wards, just like Natsu felt like a burning fire and Grey cool ice. She could feel Levy like old books, Juvia like rainwater, Erza like a sharp sword, Gajeel like unyielding iron...Cana's presence she could almost taste like the burn of alcohol down her throat. McGonagall felt like soft cat fur, Flitwick like bubbles, Mest like a rush of air past her face, and Snape like cool darkness. And next to her, brightest and strongest of the signatures by mere proximity to her, Lucy felt Cobra's acid burn.

But it wasn't enough.

The wards were shaking under the onslaught, threatening to buckle where the mages were stretched thin. It seemed as if the weakened school defenses couldn't hold against the power of the wolves on the full moon, at least not when most of the defenses were diverted to protect the dormitories, and without the primary ward holder supporting them…

She pushed more of her strength into the wards, but she could tell it wasn't enough. Desperate, she searched for solutions, the spells automatically falling from her lips as she threw her mind at the problem.

If this was the Infinity Clock, she could seize control of the wards and force it to bend to her will, but Hogwarts wouldn't recognize her that way. She couldn't force anything but her own magic.

A faint surge of magic resonating through the wards reminded her of the Tower of Heaven as Juvia's cool water feeling washed over her. And that thought reminded her of closing the Eclipse Gate.

Eying Cobra, she mulled over the idea. It would be difficult, she knew. He wasn't like Juvia, whose magic melded with hers the same way water assumed the shape of the container that held it. Nor was he like Yukino, whose magic resonated closely enough with her own, and with that of the Eclipse Gate, that they could overlook the differences between them.

No, to pull off a Unison Raid, they would have to overcome the fundamental differences between their two magic types _and_ their own personal differences.

He must have heard her thoughts, because he was glaring at her when she looked over at him, gauging whether or not she wanted to risk it. But as the windows rattled again, the loudest yet, and the wards wavered, Lucy decided to go with it.

Lunging across the space between them, she kept casting, her wand moving on autopilot as she plunged her free hand towards her belt, automatically sorting through her keys until she found the one she wanted.

When she reached Cobra, she seized his free hand with her own, forcing their fingers to interlock with her own, the silver key wedged between them.

"What are you doing?" the poison dragon slayer growled, his wand still moving in unison with hers as they fought to keep the wards intact.

"Silver," she gasped, splitting her magic between her wand and the key pinned between their hands. "Defensive spirit. If we can pull off an unison raid, with a defensive _silver_ key between us…"

"Silver is poisonous to werewolves," Cobra finished grudgingly. "And if that spirit's defensive in nature, we'll amplify that."

"Work with me," she gritted out. "For this one night, just _work with me_."

Slowly, she felt his magic shifting, balancing between his wand and his own dragon slayer magic, carefully sliding alongside her celestial spirit magic. The poisonous aspect of his magic embraced the silver of the key, mimicking how it was poison to the darker forces of the werewolves outside and enhancing it, imbuing the wards with the poisonous silver.

Lucy focused her own magic on the defensive properties of Horologium, weaving that added strength into her own contribution to the wards. She felt them strengthening, felt the flagging wards brighten and strengthen, pushing back against the darkness.

She felt the tremor in the wards as Laxus and Cana joined forces, the lightning dragon slayer weaving lightning into the wards, enhanced by Cana's _Summoned Lightning_. Grey and Erza joined them not long after with silver swords that bit deeply, leaving an icy chill behind them. Gajeel's iron bars, a mixture of his own iron and Levy's summoned iron slammed into place seconds before Natsu and Juvia joined the fray, a wall of fire, interwoven with a wall of water blasting through the wards, strengthening them.

Against the onslaught, the werewolves fell away.

Eventually, it stopped, and Lucy let her hand untangle from Cobra's. At some point, their wand hands had intertwined, mimicking each other in their movements, their magics entwining to support each other as they slowly made the unison raid possible.

The wards blazed with power, the magic almost visible in the stonework surrounding them. Lucy was certain that they would hold for the rest of the night.

She staggered as she pushed away from Cobra, realizing how much she had put into both the initial foray on the lawn and then reinforcing the wards.

He watched her stumble for a moment before motioning towards a niche in the inner wall where a bench was placed. "Rest for a while. I'll wake you in a bit. From what I can hear, we should be fine for a while. Everyone pumped so much into the wards that they're wary of trying again."

Wearily, Lucy shuffled over towards the bench, laying down gratefully on the cold stone. In the matter of minutes she felt herself slipping away to sleep.

* * *

Cobra woke her what was probably several hours later, given the lightening of the sky.

"It's over now," he said, scrubbing a hand over his face. "We're a little ways out from dawn, so they've pulled back."

Lucy yawned, feeling her eyes come unstuck and her jaw crack. "What's the damage?"

"None," the poison dragon slayer grunted. "The wards held after you started the trend of unison raids. Most of us are exhausted though. Laxus is calling a meeting in the infirmary."

"Let's get up there then," Lucy muttered, maneuvering herself off the bench. Her knee felt stiff, and she limped forward a few steps, testing her ability to move. "The sooner we get our marching orders, the sooner we get to our beds."

"What, stone floors not good enough for you princess?" Cobra snarked tiredly.

"Are you going to start harping on how your life is more terrible than mine?" Pausing to rest her knee at the corner of the corridor leading them to the stairs. "Because right now I'm not in the mood and I'd rather just hex you if you're going to start."

The poison dragon slayer fell into step beside her without saying another word. As she struggled up the stairs, clinging to the railings, he picked up his pace, stopping in front of her on one of the landings.

"Climb on," he muttered, crouching down. "We won't make it until lunch if we keep going at your pace."

Surprised at his generosity, she carefully wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She didn't want to impose on him too much by latching on the same way she would with one of her teammates from Team Natsu, but _carrying_ someone involved a whole lot of trust between the two.

 _So do unison raids_ , a tiny voice in her head pointed out. _And you just completed one of those with him_.

"Stop overthinking this," Cobra growled as they left the stairs and headed for the infirmary. "We are still not friends."

"Fine by me," Lucy muttered into his shoulder. "Just get me to the infirmary and then you can go back to being antisocial."

"If you had to listen to the snivelling mess that is everyone's souls, you'd want to get away from them too."

Before she could come up with a suitable retort, they arrived at the infirmary. Everyone else, due to not having mobility issues, had arrived there first, and Wendy was fussing over them like a mother hen. McGonagall, Flitwick, and Snape looked exhausted, even though the Potions Master was trying to hide it.

"I'll be seeing to the wards on the Willow passage," McGonagall was saying firmly. "There will be no more unauthorized visits from the Shrieking Shack. It's amazing that the students didn't wake."

"That would be due to Tramp Stamp," Cobra announced, untangling Lucy's arms from around his neck and shrugging her off onto one of the cots. "Of all the magic he knows, the sleep spell he picked up from his mirror image is probably the most useful after last night."

"He used Mystogen's sleep spell?" Erza said, looking as if she was about to march up to Gryffindor Tower. "On the entire school?"

"Only the towers," Cobra corrected, leaning against the wall by the door. "They were the ones who would hear and wake up. The badgers and the snakes snoozed through it all without any help from him."

"Well, that's some comfort," McGonagall said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to get what little sleep I can."

"Here," Snape said, summoning two bottles from the infirmary cabinets. "An Invigorating Draught and Pepper-Up. Take them after your...nap...and they should make the day more bearable. Filius, I recommend the same for you."

"And for us?" Laxus challenged mildly from where he was leaning against the bed that Cana was snoozing in. "Or do we have a free pass to sleep the day away?"

"There's enough for you, if you so wish," the Potions Master allowed, opening the cabinets again with a flick of his wand. "I know several of you do indeed have class today. And you will need to put in an appearance to assure your cover remains intact."

As he swept out of the room, Laxus shook his head and looked at the Fairy Tail members. "Who usually is seen at breakfast?"

"On Fridays?" Lucy said tiredly, massaging the muscles around her knee. "Erza, Grey, Juvia, Wendy, Cana, and Gajeel, since they have Transfiguration. I usually am gone before most people arrive so they won't miss me all that much, and Cobra misses whatever meals he feels like missing. So there's a start."

"Levy, are you up to making an appearance?" Laxus asked, looking at the solid script mage leaning against Gajeel. "You sometimes miss lunch in favor of spending time in the library, so you can get some sleep then, if Lucy makes an appearance at lunch. I'll skip breakfast, and so can Natsu, but Jellal can skip lunch. We all show up for dinner, no matter what."

As heads nodded in agreement, the lightning dragon slayer sighed. "We did good last night. The wards held, if only just. Hopefully we won't have too many nights like that."

Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the room as people started shuffling out the door, anxious to go back to their comfortable beds. Catching Laxus's eye, Lucy motioned to her knee. "If you don't mind," she asked quietly as he drifted over. "I can still walk, but it will take me forever."

He nodded, and shifted to present his back to her, much the same as Cobra had. But unlike with Cobra, Lucy latched on gratefully, snuggling into the warm coat that had been a staple of his wardrobe for as long as she had known him.

She woke up later in her bed in Ravenclaw tower, unaware of how Laxus had managed to bypass the wards preventing boys from entering the girl's tower, but willing to accept it. Her wand and her keys were within easy reach, the wand vibrating softly with the alarm that had woken her.

Sitting up, she tested her mobility and sighed. It would work, but the going would be long and slow.

 *****I had hoped to finish this last night, but I got caught up watching the US Election Results. Anyway, my muse was rebelling all the way for the past few days, so if this feels a little more forced than usual, I apologize.**

 **From this point forward, canon is taking a long walk off a short pier. The original framework of HBP is still mostly intact, but considering (as the internet has pointed out) that Harry is unobservant as all get out, I've taken the liberty of spicing up HBP and giving the crew some more things to do than just twiddle their thumbs. Also, please don't think too deeply into the massive headcanons about the wards. My creative brain needed an excuse for a unison raid and a mechanism for doing so. If you have suggestions/comments/concerns, I'd be happy to chat about them through PM. It's the first time that I'm writing for HP, so there's a lot of things I haven't had to think about until now.*****


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Seven:**

After the werewolf incident, things quieted down. Without proof that Malfoy had been involved, there were no grounds for Fairy Tail to haul him in for questioning. A fact that most of them protested strongly against.

Lucy was content to let Malfoy be for the moment though. All of her spare time was spent combing through obscure healing tomes, cross referencing what she found there with Potions journals and charms compendiums. The direct engagement with the werewolves had been brief, but it had reminded her that her knee was a liability. Running from the ground floor to Ravenclaw tower was impossible. Doing much running left her immobile, even on flat surfaces. Short sprints were about all that she could do.

Wendy and the mediwitch both agreed that there was little that could be done about her knee, short of vanishing...everything in the knee, replacing it, and a gruelling physical therapy regimen. But Lucy kept pushing forwards, reading book after book in the hopes that she might find some solution. She couldn't keep being carried like a child.

She made time to visit the Chamber of Secrets with Luna and Cobra though. They had cleared the rockslide, and had delayed their visit to the actual Chamber in order to shore up the rest of the tunnel, detecting any dark curses that they may have otherwise missed. All of them were fairly certain that everything was safe, and their next foray would lead them to the Chamber itself.

Cobra seemed to have grown...reluctantly accepting of their presence, Lucy mused as she poured over a book on obscure bone related charms. The poison dragon slayer still snapped at them, but the vitriol was missing. It was almost as if he kept it up out of habit.

"It's still there," a voice growled in her ear, and she fought very hard not to jump. Instead she looked up at Cobra, who was looming over her.

"What is it now?" _If this is another intervention…_

"Screw that," he replied to the dread in her mind. "No, we're getting out of Dodge before that happens. Never again am I listening to your whiney little lives. Although," he studied her contemplatively. "It was amusing to listen to you let loose on them, as pathetic as your grievances may have been."

"So," Lucy prompted as he seemed to be immersed in the memory. "What is it that was important enough for you to come seek me out."

"Council's Dog is thinking about volunteering us for patrols," the poison dragon slayer said with a shiver. "If we leave now, we can skip the meeting. Find the ditz and meet me at the crybaby's."

Lucy hurriedly packed up her notes and set the books she had been looking at back on the card where they would be reshelved. Missing another fruitless group meeting, especially one where Mest was considering having them do night patrols, was always a good thing. And if Cobra was willing to help her evade by taking her to the Chamber of Secrets? Well, she'd move mountains to make that happen, especially since they were going to make it into the Chamber itself.

Luna was easy enough to find, humming away in a deserted corner of the experimental charms section. It only took a brief mention of the word _Chamber_ and the blonde was falling into step with Lucy, looking for all intents and purposes like they were simply going to the lavatory, not sneaking off to a Chamber only two people in the school had ever seen.

Myrtle's bathroom was deserted, as usual. Cobra was leaning against the sinks, twirling his wand absently between his fingers. When the girls arrived, he hissed the opening command at the tap and they all watched silently as the tunnel opened. They had taken the stairs before, but when going _down_ to the chamber, the slide was faster, allowing them more time to explore. Besides, the _scourgifies_ that all of them had cast through their many trips had made the slide a clean, safe, and even slightly _fun_ way to get down to the chamber.

Landing lightly on the now cleared floor of the passage, Lucy stepped out of the way to make room for Cobra and Luna. Their entrances had become routine now, a simple matter of waiting for Cobra to close the entrance to the chamber behind them before they trekked on towards the main doors.

Once they had all assembled, Lucy fell into step on his left, while Luna took the right. As a group they moved down the long passage to the doors to the Chamber, their footsteps echoing as the sound bounced off the walls around them.

It was an excellent place to keep a secret, Lucy knew, but she couldn't help but think it was a lonely place. The walls were meticulously crafted, but all for the sight of a single man.

Stopping in front of the door, Lucy drew her wand as they waited for Cobra to open the doors. All of the reports they had gathered said that Potter had killed the basilisk, but Lucy wasn't going to leave anything to chance. Too many things had lurked in this school during the last six years for her to trust that nothing would attempt to eat them.

The doors swung open without a sound, revealing a large, dimly lit open space. She could hear water trickling somewhere, and wondered if the addition of plumbing to the castle had caused the Chamber to flood. Surprisingly enough, there was no smell of decay, no staleness in the air like she had expected. It had been four years since the Chamber was last open, and by all reports nobody had reentered it. Somewhere in here, the corpse of the basilisk was supposed to be rotting away, which should be pungent at the very least.

Wands held aloft, bright with the light of _lumos_ spells, the three of them moved into the Chamber. Somewhere above them, the columns supporting the ceiling vanished into darkness, the serpents wrapping around the pillars without their heads.

There was water lapping around the edge of the walkway, some of it having spilled over. As they progressed further into the Chamber, the light became brighter, and they could see a massive statue of a man who could only be Slytherin himself at the far end. A large dark shape rested at its feet: the presumably dead basilisk.

Despite being prepared for anything, there was nothing there. Just three humans and dripping water, enclosed by cold stone.

As they drew closer to the end of the Chamber, there was a large, puddle of blood on the flagstones. Lucy shuddered as she sidestepped them, circling one way while Luna and Cobra rounded the other edge. _Surely all of this isn't from Potter?_

But as she looked at the basilisk, saw the gouged out eyes, she realized that the basilisk had lost the blood. A smaller pool of blood encircled its head, the result of the death blow that had ended its life. Slightly further away was a large, dark puddle, with several drops of blood next to it.

Lucy wandered over to the dark stain, carefully verifying that it was harmless before reaching down to touch it. As her fingers came away wet, she marvelled at how time seemed not to have passed, at least for the environment of the Chamber. The basilisk looked as if it had just been killed.

Carefully bringing her fingers to her face, she sniffed the liquid on her fingers. _Ink_ , she realized after a minute of trying to place it. _But it smells bad. Old, and rotten._

Pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket, she wiped her fingers on it before _scourgifying_ the cloth. It wasn't the best solution, but it served her purposes.

Luna was studying the statue, her wand tucked behind her ear nonchalantly. But Cobra was standing next to the snake's head, hands shoved into the pockets of his pants as he looked at it. There was blood oozing sluggishly over his shoes, but he didn't seem to mind. His lone eye was fixed on the ruined eyes of the snake.

"What a waste," he said, and there was a note of anger in his voice that Lucy hadn't ever heard. " _What a fucking waste_."

Both girls turned their heads to look at the poison dragon slayer, who was scowling down at the snake's corpse.

"She didn't ever do anything," the poison dragon slayer yelled into the empty air of the Chamber. "All she did was follow orders from the first person to talk to her in centuries! And they killed her for that! She was an _animal_. They probably _ordered_ her to obey, and punished her for it! Animals don't know right and wrong! All they want to do is survive!"

"As annoying as Myrtle can be," Lucy began slowly, "the basilisk _did_ kill her. And it came close to killing a number of others."

He turned on her. "No, _Tom fucking Riddle_ killed Myrtle. And set the basilisk loose in 1992. It's like blaming a sword for what its master does. Is that fair?"

His fury was something she had never seen before. During the Infinity Clock, he had been coldly collected, although Erza said he had loosened up a bit to let true emotion show towards the end of their battle. But here...he looked almost like Natsu did just before Natsu was about to go on a righteous rampage.

"We were tools!" he shouted. "Made and raised for a single purpose and discarded the moment we're not useful! Riddle just left her here alone after she had served his purpose and failed! In all this time, has he thought about her? No, he got _another fucking snake_. And _fucking Slytherin himself_! He just left her here. Snakes bond to a single person, if they bond at all! What was he _thinking_ abandoning her here? She would have fought for either of them, and they threw her away like trash."

He slipped up, Lucy realized as he ranted. It wasn't just about the snake, although she knew that he was furious about that. No, he saw himself in the snake lying dead on the Chamber's floor, just as he had been abandoned by Brain after losing to Natsu.

"You are not a tool," she said quietly as the echoes of his yells subsided. "You were never a tool."

"Pretty words, Heartfilia," the dragon slayer said heavily as he withdrew one hand from his pocket to rest it on the snake's head. "But we both know that isn't true. Brain created me for one reason, and one reason alone. Your pet Council mage sprung me from jail for one purpose. Tramp Stamp only sees me as a path to his own redemption. I'm just something for the world to use in its own goals."

"Stop _saying_ that," Lucy said angrily. "You know how I grew up. A useful ornament and asset for making alliances. But that isn't who I _am_ , or even _what_ I am. If you don't want to be a tool, then don't let yourself be one. Tell Jellal to fuck off. Or to make his goals a lot less about himself or keep them to himself. You are what you believe yourself to be."

"I've _killed_ people, princess. And I _enjoyed_ it. Don't kid yourself with your pretty little thoughts about absolution and being forced. There were plenty of times where I willingly killed, not because of Brain. You should remember that I was on board with you dying in that clock."

"What do you _want_ from me Cobra?" Lucy yelled, frustrated with his insistence on being a monster. "What do you want from the world? Are you going to be the monster they made you or make your own way? Yeah, it's going to be fucking tough. Welcome to the real world."

"So your real name is Cobra?"

Lucy and Cobra both froze as Luna spoke up, and then they turned slowly to look at the blonde. She was standing almost directly in the center of Slytherin's statue, her shoes transfigured into a pair of surprisingly suitable wellies.

"Is it?" she asked tilting her head slightly to the side. "Why not _Viper_ , or _Python_?"

"Because the man who took me out of slavery into hell called me Cobra," the poison dragon slayer admitted with a heavy sigh. "And before that, my name was Erik."

Luna smiled softly, stepping closer to him and extending her hand to him. "It's nice to meet you Erik," she said cheerfully. "I'm Luna Lovegood."

Bemusedly, he stepped closer, placing his hand in hers as if he was afraid she might bite him. But all Luna did was shake his hand gently before turning back to the statue. "I think there's some sort of room in this statue."

Still struggling to understand how Luna could be so unconcerned with the information the two of them had just accidentally spilled, Lucy turned towards the statue as well. Straining her eyes, she tried to see where Luna thought there might be a door.

She didn't see it, but Luna pressed forward and rested her hand on the statue. "Here we go," she chirped, and a stone section fell away, revealing a dark passage.

Trading looks, Lucy and Cobra followed, the poison dragon slayer absentmindedly _scourgifying_ his shoes so as not to leave bloody tracks in their wake.

The blonde lead them through the passage, her wand now in her hand, held aloft to light their way. It was a short passage, and ended in a small round room. Luna touched her wand to the wall, and a ring of light appeared, illuminating the entire room.

"So somebody finally found this place," a voice said, and Lucy jumped nearly out of her skin as she turned to face the wall to her right.

A lifesized portrait of a man who could only be Salazar Slytherin was watching them curiously from its place on the wall.

"Hello Lord Slytherin," Luna said politely, dropping into a curtsey. "It is an honor to visit your Chamber."

"Two of Rowena's then?" Slytherin asked with an approving nod. "Keeping company with a Slytherin, how very interesting. Tell me, what year is it?"

"1996," Luna answered. "And we needed the Slytherin to lead us down here."

Slytherin eyed them skeptically. "What for? It is not as if one had to be a Slytherin to seek my Chamber. They simply had to be open to the possibility that there is more to magic than simplistic divisions."

Lucy traded glances with the others. "The entrance to your Chamber is accessible only through Parseltongue passwords," she said slowly. "Only your heirs would have been able to enter."

"Preposterous," Slytherin said with a wave of his hand. "Only a fool would have secured the Chamber in that fashion. Family lines die out quicker than any man, woman, or seer could predict. Though," he said thoughtfully, "it may explain why so few have come to my chamber, and only you have entered my study."

"Tom Riddle didn't find this room?" Cobra grunted. "But he accessed the basilisk easily enough."

"Do you know what became of her?" Slytherin asked sharply. "She was meant to sleep unless there was a danger to the school, but I lost track of her presence some time ago."

"She was killed, my lord," Luna murmured softly. "There was an incident where she was unleashed on several students, first in 1943, and then again in 1992. In 1943 she was responsible for the death of a student. During the end of the school year in 1992, one of the students was brought down into the Chamber, and the boy who rescued the girl was forced to kill your basilisk."

"Was there no hope for her?" Slytherin asked sharply. "Could she not be swayed?"

"I don't know," Cobra admitted heavily. "Nobody really knows all of what happened down here."

"How did she die?"

"From what I understand, a phoenix gouged her eyes out," the poison dragon slayer said softly. "And then the student rammed Gryffindor's sword through the roof of her mouth as she lunged for him. She left a fang in his arm, but the phoenix cried for him."

"Of course it was Gryffindor's sword," Slytherin said with a heavy sigh. "Why should he not take away the last thing of mine, even from beyond the grave?"

They stood in silence for a long moment before he ran his hand through his hair. "What brings you down here then? I assume you are not one of mine," his gaze fell on Cobra, who snorted, as he continued: "not with that skin and hair color."

"Not a chance," Cobra agreed.

"So if the entrances to my chamber are sealed through parseltongue, how did you come to enter it without one of my descendents? Or has parseltongue become more common?"

"It's a long story," Lucy said carefully. "But suffice to say…"

What was she supposed to call the poison dragon slayer? He had issued strong death threats to any member of Fairy Tail that used his true name, with the only exception being Jellal. But he had just introduced himself to Luna using his true name with only a little hesitance.

"Erik," the man in question said with a sigh. "You can call me Erik too, _princess_. Just not where your lunatic friends can hear."

She couldn't argue about his description of her friends.

"Anyway," she said with a slight cough. "Erik was able to mimic parseltongue enough to open the entrance that we know about. But did you say there were more than one?"

Slytherin looked offended. "Of course," he said with a huff. "What type of lunatic only puts one exit in an underground chamber?"

"Nobody believed your Chamber even existed, up until four years ago," Luna said vaguely as she pulled away from the portrait and began examining the bookshelves. "That we found one entrance likely saved Ginny's life."

The founder looked as if he was desperately interested in the second part of her statement, but chose to pursue the first half. "So my alterations to the spell worked? The modified attention diverting spell?" His grin was smug. "Rowena must be rolling over in her grave."

"You put a notice-me-not on the entrances to your Chamber?" Lucy said in disbelief. "I mean, I know I wouldn't have thought of it because that's now how I do magic, but you're telling me that nobody outside of those who you told thought to look for a _notice-me-not_?"

If anything, Slytherin's smile got even more smug. "It was a new spell I had been working on. We had hoped to use it to hide the castle itself. Obviously, it worked."

"Does this mean we'll stop visiting the crybaby?" Cobra asked with undisguised glee. "Because if I have to hear one more sermon on how I'm nothing like her precious _Harry Potter_ …"

"Myrtle Warren's ghost," Lucy explained to the founder, who looked confused. "She was the student killed by the basilisk in 1943. The students call her Moaning Myrtle, and she doesn't get many visitors due to her charming personality and tendency of flooding the lavatory she haunts."

Slytherin looked disgusted. "The entrance to my Chamber is in a girls' lavatory?"

"Times change," Lucy said with a shrug. "How are you keeping up with the changes in the language? We're having no issues communicating at all."

Another casual hand wave. "Auto-updating translation charm. And despite the fact that my official headmaster's portrait was put to the torch, I still have this one, which is linked to a lovely painting of the fens that hangs in a third floor corridor from what I've gathered. I can't appear in it, not without tipping people off to the fact that I _have_ a portrait, but it does allow me to do a lot of listening. Enough to keep up with the shifts in language."

"They burned your portrait?" Lucy asked, surprise overtaking her. She knew that Slytherin had been the least popular of the founders, but for them to cut him that completely out of the school…

"My portrait, any personal belongings I left behind, copies of my research notes, and they would have burned my personal crest if I hadn't adopted it as my house's crest. As it was, they relocated my house's quarters to the dungeons and made the north tower house the divination department." Slytherin's lip curled with disgust. "When a Gryffindor turns on a person, he does it well."

Cobra cut short any further questioning. "We need to return to the main part of the castle before dinner or they'll go looking for us. Where are these other entrances to the chamber, and can we access them easily from either side?"

"Of course," Slytherin said, looking affronted. "But in exchange for the information, I want promises from you."

"What sort of promises?" Lucy asked warily.

"Not the binding kind, silly girl. An exchange of information. For each visit you make, I will share with you information about the Chamber. This first visit earns you an exit. I won't tell you how to use that exit as an entrance; that will be your reward for the next visit. But I think you'll find this exit a bit more convenient to access than this girls' lavatory."

"Deal," Luna said brightly. "Now, where is this exit?"

* * *

Hogsmeade was a nice enough village, Lucy thought, as she pulled her cloak tighter about her.

It would be better if it wasn't sleeting, with a temperature similar to that of Mount Hakobe. But after being cooped up on the castle grounds for almost five months now, Lucy was glad to get out and about. Even Cobra had joined the huddle of Fairy Tail wizards in the queue to leave the castle.

Natsu, Erza, and Jellal had tagged along with Potter and his friends, who seemed to be having an argument over something. From what Lucy had seen, it was pretty much normal behavior. Weasley and Granger bickering, with Potter stuck in the middle as usual.

Luna casually attached herself to the Fairy Tail group, inserting herself next to Lucy so stealthily that the blonde nearly jumped when she saw her, hovering just off her elbow. "Hello Luna," Lucy said, slowly releasing her wand back into her sleeve. "Going to Hogsmeade?"

"Oh yes," the younger girl replied cheerfully. "I need to get some new socks. The Nargles have made off with all of mine."

Asking Luna what Nargles were took them through the mandatory security check and most of the way into the village. By the time they reached the main street, Lucy was half-frozen, and convinced that Luna had a problem with fellow _students_ stealing her belongings, couching her complaints with talk of magical creatures.

But she went into one of the shops and compared the different socks with the girl, Wendy and a few Hufflepuffs tagging along to look at robes. As Luna was distracted cooing over a pair of socks that screamed, Lucy leaned over the counter to speak with the shopkeeper.

"Can you charm anything she buys so that it can't be stolen?" she murmured under the chatter of students on their day out.

"For a price, of course," the man simpered.

"Do it," Lucy said firmly, sliding a galleon over the counter. "Is this enough?"

"Yes Miss," the shopkeeper agreed, pocketing the coin. "I assume you want my discretion?"

"Of course," Lucy drawled, drawing on her misspent youth as an heiress as she slid two sickles over the counter. "She's a friend of mine, and I'd rather she not know that I'm doing this."

"Thank you for your business," he said as Luna approached with a handful of socks.

Once they were done with their shopping, Lucy let Luna lead her to the pub and left the other blonde in charge of ordering drinks while Lucy found a table. Spotting Cobra lurking at a table in the back corner, Lucy pushed through the crowds to join him.

"If anyone asks, you were the only open table," she said as he opened his mouth, likely to tell her to go away. "It's just Luna and I anyway. Where are the others?"

"Tramp Stamp, Flame brain, and Titania are over there with the Gryffindors," the poison dragon slayer muttered with a nod in the direction of the overcrowded table. "Drunk went off to the Hogs Head in hopes that they would serve her, and Sparky went after her to make sure she didn't mess us up. Bookworm dragged Metal face over to some prissy tea shop. Stalker is chasing Stripper because his _condition_ is flaring up with this cold weather. And you know where Half-pint is."

Snickering at the thought of Grey attempting to strip in the middle of Hogsmeade, Lucy took in the number of layers the poison dragon slayer was wearing. She could see the distinctive collar of his coat underneath the heavy cloak, and she was willing to bet there was more underneath that she couldn't see. His table was also in the furthest corner from the door.

Luna appeared just then, with a harried looking server carrying a tray with three drinks. "When I saw you with Erik, I got him one too. Hopefully he likes pomegranate juice."

The poison dragon slayer accepted the glass with a grunt of thanks, tossing a few knuts on the tray as a tip. Lucy took the bottle of butterbeer handed to her, while Luna accepted a fruity looking drink with a very plain paper umbrella.

They sat in silence for a while before Luna began describing one of her imaginary creatures. It was an interesting enough way to pass the time, but in the middle of the story, Lucy saw Cobra stiffen.

The fifth year saw it too, and trailed off in the middle of her story. She tossed two sickles on the table and stood up.

As Cobra and Lucy stared at her, the younger blonde said: "There's something going on that you feel you need to be a part of. So let's go."

Needing no further encouragement, Cobra was on his feet and slipping out the back door, with Lucy hot on his heels and Luna trailing behind. Almost jogging, Cobra set a punishing pace through the icy mud. Lucy struggled to keep up with him, her knee already tired from the long walk from the castle. "What happened?"

"One of the Gryffindors got cursed," he grunted, heading for the outskirts of town. "Tramp Stamp and his group were right there when it happened. She's screaming, and it's bad."

Now that she was listening for it, Lucy could hear the screams intertwined with the wind. Pushing herself even faster, Lucy pressed on. "Is it one of the ones on our list?" she asked quietly, knowing that Cobra would hear her and Luna would not.

"No," he grunted, eyes squinting against the harsh bite of the wind as he pressed forward. "They came after the fact. It's one of the quidditch girls."

"Katie Bell," Luna said, pointing in front of them. "There they are."

Indeed, the group of Gryffindors was huddled in front of them, the famous trio staring in shock as Jellal and Erza fought to pin another girl down. The girl was screaming, her voice pitched eerily in harmony with the wind, while another girl stood frozen, a torn paper package in front of her on the ground. Seeing that Jellal and Erza had the cursed girl as well controlled as they could, with Natsu corralling the other Gryffindors, Lucy turned her attention to the package on the ground.

A necklace was lying half in and half out of the plain brown paper wrapping. The opals glittered in the half-light of the storm, and she couldn't help but think it had a sinister sort of beauty.

"Where did she get this?" Lucy asked, feeling the cloying press of dark magic as she crouched down, pulled her glove off, and simply waved her hand over the necklace, keeping several inches away in case she was cursed too. During their training, they had found she had a sense for the type of magic, likely due to her affinity with Celestial Magic. Jellal and Laxus had it, to a degree, and Cobra was much more familiar with the feel of darker magic than light. The necklace was by far the darkest thing she had come close to. Shuddering, she straightened and stepped away.

"I don't know," the unknown Gryffindor wailed, wringing her hands. "She went to the bathroom and came back...weird. And she kept saying that she had to give it to the headmaster. I've never _seen_ it before."

"Out of the way," Lucy heard someone order, and she looked over her shoulder to see Laxus arriving at a run, Cana several meters behind him. "What's going on?"

"Cursed object," Cobra supplied from where he was crouching over the necklace on the ground. "It's right here, but she needs to get medical attention, and fast."

"We'll take her," Potter announced, stepping towards the girl, but Cobra inserted himself between them.

"Oh no you don't," he hissed. "One of us will take her; we're faster."

The Fairy Tail wizards exchanged glances, and Laxus sighed before scooping the thrashing girl into his arms. "Meet me back at the castle," he ordered, and with a crack of lightning he was gone.

"You can't apparate inside Hogwarts," Granger shrilled, but Natsu snorted.

"Yeah, we don't apparate," the fire dragon slayer said, turning green at the thought of it. "Laxus is special though. None of the rest of us can do that. It's the fastest way to get her to Hogwarts though."

"This necklace needs to go back too," Cobra pointed out, carefully gathering it up in the original wrapping. "And you can't touch it with your bare hands."

"What I wouldn't give for Mest right now," Lucy muttered under her breath. The man's ability to direct line would have been useful. "Or even Jet."

"I can take it using Meteor," Jellal suggested warily. "If you can wrap it safely enough."

With a grimace, Lucy pulled off her winter cloak. She had decided to dress "muggle" for the day, and would hopefully be warm enough for the walk back to the castle. "Cobra, put the necklace on my cloak and bundle it that way."

A few quick movements, and the necklace was completely enshrouded in Lucy's winter cloak. Jellal took it carefully, and then touched off from the ground, pushing himself into the air. He blurred out of sight, and Lucy watched him appear and disappear for a minute before the sleet obscured her vision.

Granger looked as if she wanted to ask more questions, but Cobra glared at the huddle of Gryffindors, which had accepted the girl who had told Lucy about the necklace into its fold. "All of you need to get back too," he growled, pointing in the direction of the castle. "March."

Weasley looked mutinous, but Erza had the same look on her face as she did whenever Gray and Natsu were fighting. So the boy gulped and started walking, his friends tagging along at his heels. Lucy spread out with the others in a loose formation around the huddle, which now had Luna tagging along at its heels. Whoever had given the girl the package could still be out there.

When they reached the gates, McGonagall was there waiting for them. "Severus and Filius are with her," the stern witch murmured as Lucy fell into step besides her, knee aching from the walk and the cold. "Your healer says that she can't do anything until the curse is gone."

"I'm not surprised," Lucy replied as the castle came into view. "Wendy's good, but she's not a miracle worker. There are some things even magic can't fix."

"All of you will follow me to my office," the professor ordered, raising her voice so the others could hear her. "I want to know exactly what happened."

Waving aside Filtch as he attempted to screen them for illegal items, McGonagall hauled them up to her office, conjuring enough chairs so they could all sit. Lucy fell gratefully into the one by the fire, melted sleet dripping off her now that she was out of the cold. Cobra stood discreetly opposite her, and she was probably the only person that noticed he was continuously inching closer to the fire.

"So," McGonagall said once they had all taken their seats. "Starting from the beginning, I want to know what happened."

The cursed girl's friend stumbled through a halting account of how she had argued with her friend after the other girl came back from the lavatory at the pub with a strange package and fixation on delivering it to Dumbledore. When she reached the part where they were on the road to the castle, Potter jumped in. He described how they had heard part of the argument, and witnessed the resulting tug of war over the package. After that, the packaging ripped, revealing the necklace, and then the girl flew into the air, screaming.

Potter's recitation stumbled to a halt then as he glared suspiciously at Cobra, who glared right back.

" _At that point_ ," Lucy inserted with a pointed look at the two of them. "Er...Co... _Oracion_ , Luna, and I go there. Listening to the brief account we were given, it was decided that Laxus should bring...Bell? to the castle. After, we wrapped the necklace to prevent further incidents and had Jellal bring it back. Knowing that our observations would be needed, we came right back."

Granger looked at her thoughtfully, but Lucy honestly didn't care what she might let slip. A girl might be dying and they had been right there when the initial endangerment had occurred. If her report sounded a little too formal, too bad. If they had to show off some of their unique magic, too bad. All that mattered was not failing to protect the students.

"I see," McGonagall murmured, but before she could say anything, the door opened and Laxus entered, followed by Jellal and Snape.

"Miss Bell will survive," the potions master said smoothly. "They will transfer her to Mungo's in the morning, once the first twenty four hours are over, but it is unlikely the curse will prove fatal."

"Can I visit her?" the tearful friend asked, looking up from her hands in her lap. "I know she may not be responsive, but I just want to sit with her."

"She is in the Hospital Wing. Tell Madam Pomfrey that I sent you," Snape replied, holding the door as she rushed out.

As the door closed behind her, Potter burst out: "What's going on?"

"What do you mean Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked, looking for all the world like she wanted a cup of tea and for this to be someone else's problem. "Miss Bell touched a cursed necklace."

"What's up with _them_?" he demanded, jerking his thumb at the Fairy Tail mages grouped around the fire. "They apparated onto the grounds..."

"It's not apparation," Laxus and Jellal said in unison before the shorter man ceded to the lightning dragon slayer, who continued: "It's merely speeding up our method of travel. We don't run into problems with the anti-apparation wards but we got her here fast."

"Is it something we haven't learned yet?" Granger asked curiously.

"The Fiore School of Magic is more...individualized," McGonagall said smoothly, cutting across anything one of the Fairy Tail mages might say as she attempted to regain control of the situation. "Their students follow a highly individualized curriculum, only learning wand magic if they so choose to, once they've mastered their chosen magic. While allowing a greater variety in the types of magic mastered, this method has the downside of creating overspecialization. Most students find that their specialized magic is something only they or one other can control, and there's a fair variety between those who use similar magic."

"So we can't learn it?" Granger stated, disappointment in her eyes. "Not even if we wanted to?"

"Not a chance," Laxus said firmly. "For us, wand magic is secondary, foreign. Even now, some of us can't replicate what you can do. We studied our particular branches of magic since we were children, and some of us come from lines that specialized in certain magic types. My great-grandfather and I shared an affinity. Lucy's mother passed on an affinity to Lucy."

Weasley cut across whatever Granger was going to say. "So, is that why you came to Hogwarts then? To learn more about our type of magic."

"Yep," Cana said cheerfully, only a hint of a slur in her voice. "We thought it would be a good opportunity for us."

"What are the different types of magic?" Potter asked from where he had been sulking in the corner.

"Pretty much anything you can dream of," Jellal replied. "But most people we know only master a single form."

"You each have a different type of magic then?" Granger asked, stepping on Weasley's foot.

"We do. And before you ask, it's private," Cobra growled. "You can't go around pestering people about it. Or telling people, because then they'll all be pestering us. So keep your trap shut."

Lucy wondered what it had cost him not to drop a swear word or six in his response. That tone usually led to profanity-laced sentences. Hearing her thoughts, he glared at her.

"Why keep it a secret?" Potter asked, looking suspiciously at them. "It's just another way of using magic, right?"

Lucy sighed and prepared to explain it in a way even _Asuka_ could understand, but Snape beat her to it.

"And what do you think the Dark Lord would do, if he heard about these new ways of doing magic?" the potions master hissed. "I know it is a difficult endeavour, Potter, but do try to use your head for something besides losing points for your house." His dour look turned malicious. "Although you do have a history of looking at things that _don't belong to you_."

The words seemed to hit a nerve in Potter, and he looked down at his feet.

"If there is no other reason for me to stand here and listen to this inanity, I have detentions to oversee." The potions master swept out in a flurry of black robes.

"Is there _anything_ else I need to know?" McGonagall said, discreetly rubbing her temples.

"I think it was Malfoy," Potter blurted as Granger and Weasley both looked as if they were ready to be done with this conversation. "I think he's a Death Eater and gave Katie the necklace."

"She was _imperiused_ in the lavatory Potter," Jellal pointed out mildly. "The _girls'_ lavatory."

"So?" Potter argued mulishly. "Doesn't mean he isn't a Death Eater."

"Mr. Malfoy could not have _imperiused_ anyone," McGonagall stated firmly. "Because he was serving detention with me. And Mr. Potter, that accusation is a grave one to level against anyone, particularly against one of your classmates. Unless you have clear, unambiguous proof," she added, noticing the increased stubbornness in Potter's expression, "you cannot recklessly accuse anyone of Death Eater sympathies."

Granger and Weasley tugged Potter to his feet and shuffled him out the door, likely to avoid further outbursts.

Left with the Fairy Tail wizards, McGonagall sighed heavily. "I suppose you still believe that Mr. Malfoy is behind...both of the attempts thus far?"

Lucy rolled her eyes, but Laxus nodded. "We do. If he wasn't able to attend the Hogsmeade trip, it's highly possible he used an ally. It would be a useful way to divert suspicion from him, having an alibi."

"There were too many people around," Cobra tacked on irritably. "I couldn't get a read on either the girl or the person who cursed her. Only when she started screaming…"

"Lovely."

"Madame Rosmerta seemed a bit off," Luna piped up, and Lucy realized that her fellow blonde had been hidden amongst the Fairy Tail members all this time. "But even she has off days. It could just be an influx of Nargles."

"Unless anyone has anything useful to report," McGonagall said tiredly, reaching for a piece of parchment. "I must owl Miss Bell's parents."

As they shuffled out of the office, Lucy leaned over to whisper to Luna: "Kitchens?" She was still cold, and a cup of hot tea would go a long way towards making her feel better. Besides, the house elves were always happy to have people to serve.

Nodding eagerly, the younger girl lead the way.

 *****And we're...somewhere in the middle of October, book time. If I'm going to finish this by the end of the month, I need to light a fire under myself.**

 **Not a ton to say about this one, other than it turned massive when I wasn't looking. A big thanks to the lovely GemNika, who kindly allowed me to pick her brain about a few things.*****


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Eight:**

The two weeks passed...uneasily. It was quiet, save a few more arguments reported by the Gryffindors. Everyone seemed to be gearing up for the upcoming start of the quidditch season, but the absence of Katie Bell in Gryffindor's lineup made sure that nobody forgot what had happened in Hogsmeade.

Rumors abounded in the student body, and Cana was running an open betting pool on what the next one would be. The first years were terrified to go to the bathrooms, and travelled in larger packs than usual. Several older students attempted to run a black market in amulets and other protective charms that was quickly shut down by the prefects. Filch seemed ecstatic over the number of "volunteers" he had to clean toilets with toothbrushes.

Lucy, Luna, and Cobra had made one more trip down to the Chamber, earning them entrance using a much more convenient passage that originated on the ground floor, just off the entrance hall. It took a complicated series of wand movements, but the section of wall concealing the passage became merely an illusion while they passed through it, much like the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ .

Now that they no longer relied on Cobra to enter the Chamber, Lucy saw much less of him. It left her feeling oddly bereft, but she pushed it aside. Now was not the time to be developing relationships with anyone. In seven months, they would be scattered to the four corners of Earthland, and she would be all alone. Better to get used to it now while she had a job and a purpose to focus her.

It was part of the reason why she wasn't in any hurry to make up with her guild mates. Aside from her continuing anger at the way they would have simply abandoned the guild without a word, even before they knew the guild was to be closed, she was tired of their attempts to "fix" her. All of them acted as if they knew what was wrong with her, knew how to fix it.

But she knew better.

Just like the remnants of they key tucked on a chain under her shirt, some things couldn't be fixed.

She would live with the physical remnants of Jackal's last attack for the rest of her life. Aquarius was sealed away in the Celestial Realm forever. Her father was dead. The woman who she had become, who had traveled through the Eclipse Gate in the hopes of a better future only to die for the Lucy that existed...she would never return to her rightful timeline. Michelle never really existed in the first place.

And she wouldn't be able to look at any of her former teammates without remembering how they would have left her for a very, very long time.

In the Chamber, she was completely alone. Sitting in Slytherin's study, her homework on her lap, she listened to him lecture about spells and how to change the view on his enchanted window to show the school grounds. Once in a while, her visit there would overlap with Luna's, and she would listen to the two debate magical creatures, the founder taking the girl seriously and challenging her with questions about the habitat, life cycle, and symbiotic relationships with other creatures. Luna seemed to brighten during these sessions, despite the challenging nature of the conversation.

Friday afternoon, the day before the Quidditch match, Lucy asked Slytherin about it.

"Why shouldn't I take her seriously?" Slytherin asked with a shrug. "These creatures may very well exist. They may be valuable in potions, or have some other useful purpose yet unknown. It is in my best interest to be open to any and all information that comes my way, no matter how ludicrous it may seem. How else would I stay on the cutting edge?"

Without a response to that, Lucy went back to writing an essay for Charms, pausing only to ask a brief question about something Flitwick had glossed over in class.

For all that the histories said that Slytherin was cold, prejudiced, aloof, and evil, Lucy couldn't see it. The Slytherin she was growing to know through his portrait was stern, exacting, opinionated, and eager to learn and teach. He willingly debated tactics with Cobra, discussed magical creatures and plants with Luna, and mentored Lucy in charms and defensive spells.

As she returned to the dormitories after a short dinner in the Great Hall, she was surprised to find Laxus waiting for her. Usually she timed it so that most of the Fairy Tail crowd got to meals after she had left.

"Hey," he said, lounging in one of the chairs by the fire. "We need to stop meeting like this."

"Perhaps if you stopped ambushing me," she grumbled, taking the seat across from him. _Maybe if I humor him, we'll spare me another intervention?_

"Perhaps if you stopped hiding from us," Laxus said delicately "we'd stop ambushing you."

She didn't really have a defense for that, not one that he would accept anyway. So she held her tongue and waited for him to get to the point.

"We're worried about you," he said after a moment.

"Isn't this how we started the last intervention?"

The lightning dragon slayer looked frustrated. "Maybe if you stopped hiding and keeping things to yourself we wouldn't need to have so many," he snapped. "Can't you just accept that we want to help?"

"You don't want to help," she spat back. "You want your old Lucy back. The one whose biggest problems were Natsu's continuous threat to her rent and apartment. Not _me_."

"What's wrong with wanting to see you optimistic?" Laxus challenged. "Wallowing like this isn't good for anyone…"

"You think I like this?" Lucy bristled. "Do you honestly think I'm choosing to look at each and every one of you and remember how you were all going to abandon me without a thought? My support system, the only thing that's kept my head above water since we got back from Tenrou, gone in one fell swoop. How do you think I feel?"

"My own grandfather kicked me out of the guild," Laxus countered. "I've got a pretty good idea of what it means to have all your supports cut out from under you. Sometimes that's the only way to grow. Right now, you've got us for as long as this job lasts. But you've already said goodbye and checked out."

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because we're not separated yet. Because for as long as this job lasts, Fairy Tail still exists. Why do you think we're all here?"

She refused to look at him. Standing, she moved to look out the window.

"Lucy," Laxus said, and she could hear him moving to stand behind her. "We're still here for you. Quitting us cold turkey isn't doing anyone any good."

"I'm afraid," she whispered, reaching out to touch the cold glass. Her fingertips were trembling, she realized absently.

"Of what?"

"Of not being able to stop."

* * *

 _Of not being able to stop_.

Laxus froze. For all that he had learned during his exile from the guild, he still was terrible at dealing with people. "Stop what?"

"Depending on people," the blonde in front of him murmured, her back rigid as she looked out the window, fingers caressing the glass. "Thinking everything will go back to how it was. Crying."

"Crying?" he echoed dumbly.

"I haven't cried," she admitted, her hand falling from the window to clutch at something at her throat. "Not since the day of the battle. Not since Aquarius…"

He didn't know what to say. _He_ had been the one to sacrifice himself for others, not the one to do the sacrificing.

"It's just...I feel if I start crying, I'm not going to stop. And crying's not going to fix anything."

How he wished Levy was here, or really any of the other girls in Fairy Tail. When he had planned to confront Lucy about her continued withdrawal, he hadn't expected her to open this much to him. In a way, he realized, it was a good thing. She was talking, even just a little.

"All of this, it's just too much. I don't want to fall apart because this time I'm not sure if I can put myself back together. And being too close to Fairy Tail makes me feel safe. Makes me want to fall apart."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," he said as gently as he could, scrabbling to remember how to deal with emotional women. Angry women, flirtatious women, those he could deal with. Crying ones, not so much. "We're here for you."

"No, you aren't," she said flatly, closing herself off again. "In a few months you'll be gone, and I'm just going to have to go through all of this again. Better not to try."

"Bullshit," Laxus growled, reaching out to spin her around to face him. "That type of shit never works. If there's one thing almost dying taught me, it's that life is too fucking short to cut yourself off. There may not be a tomorrow, and if you live like you're afraid to get close to people you're going to live like they're already gone. In the end, you're twice as lonely because you don't even have the memories. You're not living right now, you're just surviving. And that's why we're worried."

"Just let me be." Lucy's eyes were full of a fire he hadn't seen since she ripped into Team Natsu during the last time they had attempted to reach out to her. "What would you do differently? Tell me honestly: months of loss after loss without a moment to grieve them until you're afraid to wonder who's next. And then it's everyone in one fell swoop, but they're not gone yet. No, you know they're going to leave, you know the date and the time. Oh, and to top it off? They had been planning to leave before life ripped them away. Honestly now, Laxus. What would you do in my place?"

"Live," he said, pushing everything he had into that single word. "Don't pull back. You don't know what's going to happen. After this, we may stick together as one group, even though the guild is gone. Just because we don't have a guild to go home to doesn't mean we're forced to go it alone. First thing I do when I get back is look for the Raijinshu. And I'm bringing anyone that doesn't want to be alone with me."

Something sparked in Lucy's eyes at that, but the door to the common room opened, admitting a bunch of chattering second years. She immediately seemed to push the emotion down, untangling herself from the grip he had on her. "You should go get dinner. And probably tell the others that unless they want to get hexed, they should wait a month before another intervention's scheduled."

As he watched her climb the stairs to the girls' dormitories, he couldn't help but wish he had a tenth of his grandfather's skill with people.

* * *

The next day, Lucy dutifully wrapped up as warmly as she could before trooping out to the Quidditch stadium with the entire school to watch the first quidditch match of the year. Regardless of house affiliation, the Fairy Tail contingent claimed a block of seats sandwiched between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw sections.

All of the male members of the group, with the exception of Cobra, seemed overtaken by quidditch fervor. Natsu and Gajeel were eagerly debating beating strategy, while Laxus, Mest, and Jellal were discussing broom types and the speed advantages they offered. Erza was eagerly participating in _both_ discussions at once, while simultaneously holding a third conversation with Grey about defensive maneuvers.

Meanwhile, Levy was attempting to keep reading, while Wendy wrung her hands anxiously. Not being able to actively heal outside of injuries sustained in battle was driving her up the wall. Especially when she had to watch people get injured, like in the quidditch match.

Juvia was perched next to Lucy, who had chosen to sit next to Cobra, the three of them wearing equally longsuffering looks as they stared morosely out at the pitch.

"Why," Lucy began, "are we doing this again?"

"Because everyone's out here and it makes a prime target?" Cobra offered under his breath.

"Mest said Juvia had to be?"

"Terrible reasons," Lucy muttered as the players streamed out onto the pitch. "Terrible reasons, all of them."

Glumly, she watched as the captains shook hands, and then the players were in the air. It was interesting, to a point, but the petty commentary coming from the staff seating pretty much negated any enjoyment Lucy might have derived.

"That's it," Cana grumbled from behind Lucy from where she was sitting, smelling of cooking sherry and highly disgruntled that she had been forbidden by Laxus from running betting pools amidst the students. "I'm taking over."

Before anyone could stop her, she had stood up, casting a _sonorous_ on herself. "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, this is Cana Alberona, and I am officially taking over this ship. Commentary. Whatever floats your boat."

The official commentator attempted to squawk something, but Cana overrode him. "Now where were we? Gryffindor with possession of the quaffle, the Weasley girl is sharp, isn't she? My assistant Grey will be taking bets, I'm offering 2 to 1 odds that Weasley scores the most goals…"

Lucy saw several faces in the Fairy Tail section pale. Cana was a demon when it came to betting pools, which is why Laxus had forbidden them in the first place. "Now, Weasley scores, making the score forty to zero…"

After a few minutes, most of Fairy Tail had gone back to cheering for the game, earning them alternating approving looks and disgruntled glares from the green and silver section next to them.

"Can't you just pick one?" A Slytherin girl hissed at Natsu as he lept up to cheer Weasley's shot on the Slytherin hoops and immediately switched to praising the Slytherin keeper as the boy blocked it.

"Nope!" the fire dragon slayer said cheerfully, pumping his fist in the air. "This is waaaay more fun."

Grey was being inundated with people buying into Cana's betting pool, which she was constantly updating the odds on as the match progressed. Lucy wasn't quite sure it was a legitimate way of running a pool, but she kept her mouth shut. Cana's voice was shrilling in her ears at such a close proximity, it was a wonder she could hear the conversations around her.

Realizing that Cobra had to be in more pain than she, she discreetly conjured a pair of black earmuffs and slipped them to him before making herself a pair. There was no thanks, but he slid them on and went back to watching the game.

Eventually, Potter caught the snitch, clinching Gryffindor's win. Cana took a deep bow, much like she did during the Grand Magic Games after she had used Fairy Glitter to wipe away the competition. The stadium shook with applause from three sides, with Slytherin being the only exception. Most of the snakes were glaring at Fairy Tail as if they were contemplating long and painful deaths. The Weasley girl seemed to have an _accident_ that sent her crashing into the official commentator, who had continued to attempt to do his job, getting nastier every time Cana talked over him. This, of course, made Cana a _very_ happy woman, considering she had offered spectacular odds on something happening to him.

"Make sure to stop by to pick up your winnings or pay your tab," Cana announced before removing the amplification charm. Grinning at the Fairy Tail members seated around her, she asked: "That made it better, right?"

Laxus looked as if he wanted to argue, but Natsu chimed in, arguing about how it would have been better if Gajeel hadn't almost crushed him at one point. For a moment it looked as if the two might start brawling, but Levy pulled herself out of her book long enough to distract Gajeel, while Erza loomed threateningly over Natsu before collecting him to rejoin the Gryffindors.

Feeling surprisingly merry, swept up in the atmosphere of the pitch, Lucy joined the group as they streamed towards the Great Hall for lunch. Cobra kept pace at her side, still wearing the earmuffs, although he had managed to charm them to blend in with his hair. The blonde had to do a double take when she looked at him the first time she noticed. Wendy seemed to be tagging along with Mest, talking excitedly about the match now that the risk of injury had declined.

For the first time since the start of term, Fairy Tail split themselves between two house tables to eat at during lunch. Lucy was vaguely aware that one or two of them had occasionally crossed house lines to sit with other Fairy Tail mages, but most of the time they obeyed their house divisions. But today, they grouped together at the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, with Natsu, Jellal, and Erza watching over Potter and his friends in Gryffindor from the closest seats among the badgers that they could get.

It was utter chaos.

While they had managed to curb Natsu's urge to fight someone every ten minutes, his table manners were still atrocious. Gajeel was slightly better, if one overlooked his attempts to eat the silverware before realizing they weren't the normal iron utensils that had been standard in Fiore. Meanwhile, Cana was still using Gray as her assistant while she settled all the outstanding bets from the match, while Juvia and Wendy were talking excitedly with some of the braver badgers, most of who seemed taken back by the invasion of their space.

Across the aisle from the combined Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, Lucy sat with Levy, Laxus, and the Slytherin members of their contingent. Mest had removed himself to the staff table and was watching them warily. Lucy didn't blame him, an atmosphere like this was usually when a brawl started in the guild hall.

Sure enough, Natsu managed to accidentally throw a dinner roll such that it hit Gajeel in the face, causing the other slayer to put his elbow in Cana's soup. The soup bowl promptly overturned, dumping its contents into the card mage's lap, and she shrieked and jumped up, crashing into Gray who had been standing behind her. Gray fell into Erza, who was smashed into Jellal, who upended a basin full of steak and kidney pudding onto Natsu, who then deliberately threw a bowl of potatoes at Gajeel.

After that, Lucy lost track.

A full on food fight had been declared, with battle lines being drawn between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. At first it was only the Fairy Tail contingent, but soon some of the more mischievous first and second years joined in until most of the table had been drawn in or taken refuge under the tables. Gyriffindor, always up for mayhem, was a quick convert, leaving only Slytherin as outsiders until a bowl of peas struck a seventh year in the face, causing open warfare to break out as the snakes fought to avenge their damaged pride.

Lucy ducked under the table as a piece of chicken flew past her ear, not wanting to get mixed up in anything that her reckless teammates might get themselves into. Levy was already there, calmly reading her book as if it was just another day in the guild hall, and Cobra wasn't far behind her, scowling as he wedged himself under the table.

"I forgot how much I hate you all," he grumbled as a vat of soup clattered to the ground, spilling its contents everywhere. Struggling to pull her wand out in the cramped quarters under the table, Lucy hurried to vanish the liquid before she was sitting in it. "You're all crazy and I should have stayed home."

"Feeling's mutual," she replied absently, surprised to find a faint smile on her face as she listened to the pure chaos above her. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine that she was _home_. Back in the familiar guild hall. Most people would find the sounds of breaking glass and arguing terrifying, but to her they were home.

"Not you too," Cobra mumbled pulling his knees up to his chest as another Ravenclaw took refuge under the table. "It's spreading.

"Grow up," she retorted, flinching as something (or someone) heavy hit the table just above her head. Laxus was out there still, likely attempting to stop the food fight, since he rarely joined in the brawls back home. Surely the staff would have stopped it by now though?

And then everything went dead silent. Exchanging glances with Levy, Lucy looked over at Cobra for the retort, but it looked as if the poison dragon slayer was devolving into a fit of _giggles_ , of all things. Shrugging, Lucy tentatively poked her head out of the safety of the table and saw everyone frozen in place.

Snape had apparently come down from the Head table to deal with the chaos. And somebody (Lucy suspected a member of Fairy Tail given the way Mest was attempting to hide under the Head Table) had nailed him in the face with a bowl of mashed potatoes.

" _Enough_ ," the man hissed, vanishing the potato from his person with a sharp flick of his wand. "Detention. All of you. For the rest of today, you will be cleaning the Great Hall. Nobody will get dinner until this mess has been completely cleaned. _You will do this without magic_."

Turning on his heel, he headed out of the hall, scowl darker than usual. Grimacing, Lucy conjured a pail of water, scrub brush, broom, and cloth before tucking her wand in her pocket. Leaving the protective shelter of the table, she started in on the first patch of mess she saw.

" _Lucy_ ," Wendy hissed from where she was lying on her stomach by the Hufflepuff table, decorated in bits of food. " _What are you doing?_ " Her whisper was eerily loud in the quiet hall. The staff must have put up some sort of shield that both blocked incoming projectiles and kept sound from reaching the students, since Lucy could clearly see Professor Sprout laughing.

"Cleaning," she said clearly, setting her scrub brush down so that she could conjure an empty bucket to put the dinner rolls and other mostly-solid objects in.

" _You're using magic_ ," someone else hissed, the students still frozen in shock at the anger that had emanated from the Defense professor. " _He specifically said…_ "

"Professor Snape's terms were that we are not to _clean_ the mess using magic," Lucy stated, shifting slightly to relieve the pressure on her knee. "However, since he didn't give us the necessary tools to complete our detention, I assumed we were to provide our own."

Slowly, the students began to unfreeze and follow her lead. The prefects were kept busy conjuring cleaning supplies for the younger students, and some industrious Hufflepuffs started dividing up the work. Slytherin House looked mutinous about being lumped in with the ruffians, but they held their tongues after several pointed looks from the rest of the houses. They kept to the area directly next to their table though.

Someone, somewhere in the hall, started up a song, and Lucy found herself humming along as she scrubbed at a patch of spilled pumpkin juice that was getting sticky. She didn't know any of the words, but it was a pleasant diversion.

As the song died off, Luna started on the next one.

 _Are you going to Scarborough Fair?  
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme._

 _Remember me to one who lives there._

 _She was once a true love of mine._

Lucy had never heard it before, but several of the other students did, and their joined voices filled the hall. Male and female, high and low, the music entwined to form something greater than the individual vocalists. It was almost its own brand of magic.

A voice joining in near her elbow made Lucy start. She hadn't known Cobra could sing, let alone sing _well_. He was singing quietly, so only those around them were even aware, but he was blending beautifully with the airy tones that were coming from Luna, giving them a firm foundation.

He caught her amazed glance, and immediately stopped with a scowl. Turning back to her scrubbing, Lucy made a mental note to get Luna to sing sometime when they were down in the Chamber together. Perhaps Cobra might be tempted to sing again.

The poison dragon slayer glared at her as he worked on a patch of gravy next to her. "I'm not a music box to play on your command," he hissed under the melody that continued. "It just sounded as if it needed something deeper. That's _all_."

Shrugging, Lucy let the matter drop and pushed forward to get to the next spot. Between the industrious Hufflepuffs, and the Fairy Tail members who had both energy and experience cleaning up messes like this, the job was getting done quickly enough. Most of the staff had left, but the remaining three heads of house were supervising from the staff table, along with Mest, who had stopped attempting to hide under the table and was watching the cleanup with a resigned expression on his face.

By midafternoon, the professors declared the Hall to meet their standards and dismissed them, but not without giving them a stern warning that such behavior wouldn't be tolerated again. McGonagall's eye was firmly fixed on the Fairy Tail contingent as she delivered her warning, and then she sent them off to change out of their food splattered clothing.

Only a few of the students had thought ahead and placed impervious charms on their clothing before they were dragged into the fight, and Lucy didn't envy the house elves the amount of work ahead of them. Most of the original combatants were covered pretty much head to toe in anything that had been within reach. Natsu was partially unrecognizable, and Mest seemed to realize that the Fairy Tail members would end up tracking food through the castle, because he ordered them outside. Only Lucy, Levy, and Cobra were still clean.

Out on the lawns, the former Rune Knight showed his true colors by ordering them to stand in ranks, leaving any extraneous possessions in a pile by his feet. As they assembled, with several grumbles and elbows to sides as people jostled for space, Mest pointed his wand at them.

"Shit," Cobra grunted, and grabbed Lucy by the collar as he jumped away. Guessing what might happen, Lucy snagged Levy's sleeve, and the three of them landed on a heap on the grass just as Mest soaked the entire group with an overpowered _aguamenti_.

Natsu was spluttering and complaining, but most of the others seemed to take it as it was intended and started wringing out their now soaked clothing before using drying charms. Careful of where she was putting her hands, Lucy squirmed out of the pile that Cobra had inadvertently created when he pulled her out of the way, brushing herself off as she headed for the castle. She had homework to finish researching, and the library would be free of any Fairy shenanigans for the rest of the afternoon, given the lecture Mest looked like he was about to deliver.

* * *

After the quidditch match, the only thing most of the student population discussed at any length was Slughorn's Christmas party. That, and the apparent drama dividing the Gryffindor Trio.

According to the gossip mongers, Cana reported, Weasley may or may not be dating one of his housemates in an attempt to make Granger jealous. The rumor mill also suggested that there had been a duel fought between Granger and Weasley the night of Gryffindor's win and the following food fight.

The food fight had sparked a new spirit of mischief in the poltergeist, Peeves, who had been distraught at arriving too late to participate himself. In retribution, he delivered an increased level of mayhem to the entire school. Even the Gryffindors were asking the Bloody Baron to intervene on their behalf, and the Slytherin house ghost didn't seem to be overly offended.

Two days after the food fight, a howler arrived, presumably from the Weasley twins. It addressed the school at large, rebuking them for waiting until _after_ they had left the school to involve themselves in a food fight, and then it rebuked the staff for allowing such a thing to happen after they had left. It had ended in a giant raspberry and a poof of smoke that had formed an advertisement for their shop.

"Malfoy's been sneaking around," Gajeel said with a grunt at one of their meetings in Mest's office. "I can't figure out where he's going, since he times it at the weirdest possible moments, but he's up to something. And it's not a girlfriend."

"The heamaster says if we don't have proof, he can't do anything," Mest said with a sigh. "And there's been an uptick in cursed Christmas gifts for the headmaster, so he says the threat from within the school is likely unrelated to the larger threat outside the school."

"So what's be paying us for then?" Lucy muttered, rubbing her temples. Things had gotten better for her since the Quidditch match, the food fight seeming to have fixed something inside her that she hadn't known was fixable. It was...easier now, to be around Laxus, Levy, Gajeel, and Cana. They had been friends before, or at least acquaintances, and now they were the only people she could talk to without remembering how they would have abandoned her and feeling a surge of anger.

"To watch, mostly," Laxus replied. "And to be here if something like that werewolf attack happens again. But I doubt it will. According to what Mest reports that McGonagall has said, whatever we did that night strengthened the castle's wards. Not just the immediate wards, but the perimeter wards too. There have been a few more attempts, but nothing's gotten close. Apparently the food fight helped to, for some reason involving student morale that I didn't quite understand."

"Moving on," Mest said, reining in the meeting before it could spiral out of control. "Who all got invitations to Slughorn's party?"

Lucy raised her hand, along with Jellal, Wendy, Levy, and Cobra. All five of them had been in Potions with the man, and while they didn't enjoy spending time with him, it was a way to watch over some of the more...connected students. Granger had gone regularly, and according to what they had been able to figure out, Potter was supposed to be attending the Christmas party.

"Now, dates are invited and encouraged," Mest continued. "Who's taking whom?"

"I'm going with Shrimp," Gajeel inserted, causing the blue haired solid script mage to blush.

"I'm not going with any of you," Cobra growled. "I may have to go to this thing, but I'm not taking a date."

Apparently deciding not to argue with the poison dragon slayer on that front, Mest moved on. "Wendy? How about you?"

The girl squeaked. "I don't have a date," she mumbled, face turning bright red. "We shouldn't all be there, should we?"

"You've got a point. So, Wendy and Cobra are going solo, Levy's taking Gajeel, Jellal?"

"I'm going with him," the redhead said firmly. "Both Potter and Granger are going, so Natsu should be enough to watch Weasley in Gryffindor Tower."

"Who did Granger end up deciding to take?" Cana asked, eyes twinkling. "Smith, Corner, or McLaggen?"

"McLaggen," Jellal said, rubbing his temples. "We've been hearing about it all week. Weasley's been throwing tantrums."

"That should be fun," Laxus muttered. "So glad we're spending Christmas here."

Dumbledore had assured them that the Weasley household was plenty safe, and that their charges would be well protected over the break. Granger was apparently visiting her parents, and there had been an Order member detailed to ensuring her safety as well. So they had a break over the holidays, while their primary protectees went home, leaving only them and a few other students in the castle.

"Last one and then we're done. Lucy, who are you taking?"

"Laxus, if he doesn't mind," she said, glancing over at the lightning dragon slayer. "With him, we'll have four dragon slayers, Erza, Levy, Jellal, and myself present. He can also get us somewhere else in the castle if need arises."

"I'll go," Laxus agreed. "Are we done? I apparently need to go figure out what to wear to this thing."

"Don't worry," Lucy said wryly. "Virgo has offered to tailor _all_ our outfits. Apparently, she's been bored. I've sent her pictures from the catalogues I found, so hopefully what she comes up with won't be too out of place. You'll find them on your beds Friday afternoon, or so she tells me."

Wendy clapped eagerly, and Levy and Erza smiled. The men looked skeptical, but Lucy ignored them. Celestial clothes were almost always better than regular clothes, and the only worry was Virgo not making them stand out too much.

They left the meeting in mixed spirits. A break would be nice, but all of the waiting grated on them.

* * *

Flitwick had them decorating the castle for the last charms class before the holidays. Gathered in the Great Hall, decorating the massive Christmas trees, Lucy laughed with the rest of Fairy Tail as Natsu broke yet another of the conjured glass spheres in his attempt to place it on the tree. Meanwhile, Gajeel had managed to get himself tangled up in a string of fairy lights.

"Don't even think it," he growled as Lucy fought to contain her laughter. "Whatever you're thinking, _don't_."

"But I _want_ to," she whined playfully, giving him her best pleading look.

"Damn it Bunny," he snapped, almost clocking Levy as he squirmed trying to get out of the lights. "You couldn't have used that back when we _weren't_ friends?"

"Are you telling me that my puppy dog face would have stopped you from attempting to kill me?" she asked in disbelief, losing the fight to hold back her laughter.

"Yes! No. Maybe?" Gajeel complained as he managed to get his arm free. "Depends. I was pretty pissed at you. You didn't scream."

"Hold on," Granger said, butting in as she and her two tagalongs were decorating the tree next to the group Fairy Tail had claimed. "Redfox attempted to kill you?"

Lucy considered it for a moment. "Yeah, that was definitely a murder attempt. The intent was there."

"And you're okay with this?" Granger asked, face showing clear disbelief. Her sidekicks, now alerted to the fact that there might be interesting stories at hand, drifted closer.

"Well, _yeah_ ," Lucy said, gesturing to Grey and Natsu, who seemed to be about to fight over broken ornaments. "It's an occupational hazard with this group."

"Murder attempts?"

"Everybody, raise your hand if you've almost killed Lucy before," Cana announced to the group at large, causing all of the Fairy Tail mages to look up.

Gajeel put his free hand in the air, which was the only untangled part of his anatomy. Slowly, hands went up from the group, more as Cana chivvied them into remembering past misdeeds. "Natsu, Grey, I'm sure she's almost died because of you two idiots. Hands up. Erza, you too, probably."

Pausing, Cana looked at Laxus. "Why is _your_ hand up?"

"Thunder Palace?" he reminded her.

"Not specifically targeted at Lucy."

"You were unavailable at the time, but I did use her to make a point about what might happen," the lightning dragon slayer admitted uncomfortably.

"Ah well, I'll accept it. Cobra, get your hand up too."

"I," Cobra stated clearly. "Have not attempted to kill blondie. Ash for brains? Yes. Titania? Most definitely. But blondie was never on my list."

"Infinity Clock," Cana sang out before moving on. "Jellal?"

"Tower of Heaven. Collateral damage."

"Acceptable. So that leaves us with...Levy and Wendy are the only ones who haven't threatened your life. Well then. That's quite a list."

"What did you do?" Weasley blurted out, looking at Cana's hand in the air.

"Left her in a danger zone because I was selfish," the brunette admitted. "But that was…" She paused. "Can someone help me figure out how long ago that was?"

"Did you forget how to tell time?" Cobra snarked.

"Tenrou," Cana said flatly. "It's a bit of an issue."

"Seven years," Jellal said smoothly. "It was seven years ago."

"Time flies, doesn't it?" Levy said cheerfully. "And we've all forgiven the little things that happened in the past."

"Attempted murder is _little_?" Potter asked.

Lucy shrugged, conjuring another sphere for the tree. "When it happens all the time, you get rather numb to it."

The Gryffindor trio looked as if they had more questions, but Natsu and Grey started fighting at that moment, which was enough of a distraction to derail that train of conversation.

* * *

The day of Slughorn's party, Lucy checked with Virgo in the morning to make sure that the outfits were completed and on track for being delivered to the right people. After being assured that everything was all set, Lucy let herself into the Prefect's bath, which the headmaster had given them permission to use if they wanted.

Ravenclaw tower only had showers, which were usually pristine (unless the entire dorm had just been through getting ready for the day), always had hot water, and were spelled to keep sound from escaping so you could sing as loudly as you wanted in the shower. But what Lucy missed was the ability to take a long, relaxing bath.

Despite their permission to _use_ the bathroom, they had to be discreet about it, which meant not using it when other students were present. So, fully confident that the other students were in class or about to head for lunch, Lucy filled the tub with her favorite blend of oils and bubbles and undressed quickly, folding her clothes neatly on a nearby bench before sliding into the warm water with a sigh of appreciation.

When the door to the bathroom opened, she sat up with a start, relaxed mood fading, but it was only Cana, with Erza and Wendy in tow.

"I missed our baths together," Cana said, stripping easily and jumping into the tub. "Did you miss me~"

As the other girls joined them, Lucy closed her eyes and leaned back against the side of the tub. _This_ , this is what she was going to miss. The casual companionship. And it's what she had been keeping herself from for so long.

Cana called for one of the house elves, another privilege they were granted as long as it wasn't abused, and had a tray of snack foods sent up so they wouldn't completely miss lunch.

* * *

They had to leave the bath by the end of lunch, since it was highly likely Granger or some of the other students might use the bathroom to get ready for the party. So they headed to their separate towers, laughing and smiling.

"You look good like this," Levy said as they approached the door to Ravenclaw tower. "Happy."

"I feel good," Lucy admitted. "I guess I didn't realize how lonely I was."

"We really were worried about you," her friend said, answering the riddle after a moment's thought. "What happened...it was bad. But for a while it looked like we were going to lose you too. Not all changes are bad, but...it was if you had become a completely different person."

Uncomfortable with the subject, Lucy replied: "I'm not...I'm not _better_. What happened...I can't just shrug that off. When we leave, I'll probably regress, at least a little. Right now, it's kind of like a bandage on a wound. Stopping you from bleeding out, but not necessarily healing the wound. When you take the bandage off, either it's healed underneath, or you've just ripped off the scab and started all over again."

Levy looked worried, but they had just reached their room, and Virgo's gifts were lying at the foot of their beds.

The other girl squealed with delight as she picked up the deep purple robes, holding them up so she could get a better look. "Lucy, thank Virgo for me, because these are amazing! And they don't clash with my hair!"

Grinning, Lucy steered Levy into the bathroom. "Speaking of your hair, we've got to get working if we're going to be ready in time, since we can't rely on Cancer…"

Giggling, both girls claimed occupancy of the bathroom.

* * *

When Lucy descended the stairs, she felt like a princess. The robes Virgo had crafted fell around her in gentle drapes, revealing the fine gold and silver embroidery against the midnight blue of the fabric. A v-neck collar displayed Aquarius's broken key like a necklace, and Lucy had almost cried the first time she looked in the mirror. It was only a dinner party, so she wasn't as dolled up as she had been during the Grand Magic Games after party at the palace, but she felt glamorous.

The hem of her robe brushed lightly against the floor as her boots, a pair the spirit had brought especially for the occasion, hit the common room floor. Levy was right behind her, and Lucy looked around for Laxus, who had promised to meet them in the common room.

He was standing by the fireplace, resplendent in a set of bronze robes that almost exactly mimicked his coat. Instead of the fur that lined the edges, delicate embroidery traced down his lapels. His hair was slicked back, and several of the younger Ravenclaw girls were goggling at him.

"Ready to go?" he asked, holding out his arm. As his date, Lucy was offered his right arm, but Levy was offered his left, since they would be meeting with Gajeel down in the Entrance Hall.

They ran into Jellal and Erza on the stairs, the two looking like the very definition of a power couple. Erza was in a bold red that matched her hair, while Jellal was wearing robes that reminded Lucy of his coat from the Nirvana incident.

"Granger went down before us, and I think Potter's going to end up running fashionably late," Jellal informed them. "He ended up asking Lovegood as his date, so at least we don't have to worry about other girls."

That had been their biggest threat since the werewolves. Other girls attempting to charm, potion, or otherwise bewitch Potter into being their date. Thanks to the keen noses of the dragon slayers, and some quick spellwork on a few occasions, Potter had managed to escape unscathed.

"I'll keep an eye out for Luna then," Lucy volunteered. "Hopefully the break will give the girls a chance to cool their heads, but she isn't the most popular person on a normal day. Potter probably thought he was being sweet, but he could have just caused her more trouble."

There was no more talk of serious subjects as they walked down the stairs to the Slughhorn's office where the party would be held. Instead, they talked about plans for the holidays. Since none of the Hufflepuffs were remaining, the Fairy Tail contingent were planning on spending most of their time there. There were no students that needed to be watched staying, only a few whose parents were travelling, and Slytherins who Cobra grudgingly supplied didn't want to go home.

As they reached Slughorn's quarters, a shy Wendy caught up with them, launching herself into Lucy with a shriek of delight. "Thank you! It's the prettiest thing I've ever worn!"

The girl did look spectacular in her dress robes, a sky blue color that seemed to catch the wind every time Wendy moved. Out of the darkness, Gajeel and Cobra loomed up, the iron dragon slayer immediately offering his arm to Levy.

"Let's just get this over with," Cobra muttered, fidgeting in his dress robes. Lucy was surprised to see that they looked much like the long coats he normally wore. And they looked good on him.

 _We're going to take the party by storm,_ she thought, and on a whim, transfigured a section of the wall into mirrors.

They looked back at her. Ethereal Wendy, no longer just a little girl, but a girl on the edge of growing up. Levy, whose steadiness was enhanced by the silvery grey robes Gajeel was wearing but still managed to give off a completely feminine allure. Erza and Jellal, who were not only dressed to the nines, but _comfortable_ in it. A matching pair who could kill you, literally and figuratively. Cobra, who looked deadly, but suave. And Laxus, a modern day Adonis in Ravenclaw bronze.

Lastly, she looked at herself, and for a moment, she thought she was looking at her mother. But the broken key around her neck reminded her that this was the present, and she chased away that thought, restoring the stone to its original state.

"Ready everyone?" she asked, accepting Laxus's arm. "Then let's go."

* * *

The party was...boring. Socializing with a number of influential people was interesting on paper, but not when you actually had to do it. Lucy delicately swirled the contents of her glass, remembering exactly why she hated society parties. From the looks of it, Luna was the only one of their protectees enjoying it, and she was deep in conversation with the batty Divination professor. Potter looked bored, and Granger kept fleeing her date after he made a few attempts to pull her under the mistletoe. McLaggen had gotten to be so aggressive in his pursuit that Laxus and Gajeel had _accidentally_ tripped him into a platter of hor d'oeuvres.

Cobra was skulking somewhere in the shadows, and Gajeel and Levy were dutifully socializing with Slughorn and a few of his former students that he had invited back. Laxus was supervising Wendy as the younger girl was being fawned over by a group of visitors, and Erza and Jellal were out (slaying) showing up others.

"Miss Heartfilia," a silky voice drawled next to her, and she turned to find Snape there. "Imagine my surprise at your having received an invitation to this...event."

"Professor Slughorn was kind to remember my classmates and I," she murmured demurely, lowering her eyes as she would have when dealing with an unwanted suitor back at the Konzern. "It is a pleasure to meet so many distinguished people."

"Of course," the professor murmured in response, taking a glass from a passing house elf. "And it isn't a security risk, having so many unvetted guests in the castle for the evening."

"I wouldn't know about such a thing," she demurred. "I'm sure the Headmaster has it well in hand…"

"The headmaster has left the castle for the evening, Miss Heartfilia," Snape whispered, barely moving his lips as he surveyed the room. "What do you make of that?"

Lucy sucked in a breath.

"Food for thought," Snape continued before raising his voice to a normal conversational level. "I'm afraid I must pay my respects to Professor Slughorn, Miss Heartfilia. We can discuss your last marks another time."

Without another word, he glided off towards Slughorn, who had cornered Potter and Luna by the Divination. Lucy waited another moment or two before fading back into the shadows, knowing Cobra would find her if he wanted to be cooperative; if not, she'd just go find him.

"I heard," he murmured, appearing in a way that made it look like he had been hiding behind the wall hangings. "No headmaster to help hold the wards, unvetted guests...it's a nightmare. What are they thinking?"

"Well, looks like we'll get to earn our keep," Lucy muttered, fervently thankful that Virgo had made all of their outfits. Unlike normal formal wear, these clothes would hold up in a fight while still allowing freedom of movement. Plus she was wearing boots. Not heels, which would give out on her and make her already limited range of movement worse, but boots. Solid, comfortable, supportive _boots_. "Who will tell the others?"

"Half-pint," Cobra said decisively. "She can go back and let Stripper and Stalker know. And we'll keep Titania and Tramp Stamp on their protectees. Ash for Brains will be able to figure out if something's happening."

"I'll mingle and spread the word," Lucy replied, already planning out her next moves. She'd need to tell Wendy first, so the younger girl could head for Hufflepuff to warn Gray and Juvia, and then Jellal and Erza…

"Don't worry about telling Half-pint. I'll get her out of here. You rally the others. Rendez-vous in the empty classroom a few doors down."

The poison dragon slayer slipped through the crowd, heading towards Wendy. Lucy let him have a few seconds' head start before heading for Jellal and Erza, who were mingling with the female Weasley and her date. Sidling up to them, she discreetly bumped Jellal's arm, getting his attention before she tapped three times in their prearranged cue that unknown problems had arisen.

He barely inclined his head, but she knew he had gotten the message. Tapping once more for _meet and discuss_ , she slid away, making her way towards Levy and Gajeel.

Grabbing her friend's arm, Lucy smiled winningly at the people who she had interrupted. "I'm so terribly sorry to have interrupted, but I need to borrow Miss McGarden. I'll return her in three minutes or so." As the other participants in the conversation started gushing their responses, Lucy locked eyes with Gajeel and tipped her head towards Laxus and then the door.

Making her way through the crowd, Lucy kept Levy moving until they were out in the hallway and on their way towards the classroom they had selected for rendez-vous.

"What's going on?" Levy asked, her tone no longer that of a schoolgirl excited for a party. This was a girl who had rewritten Freed's runes, who had battled Grimoire Heart, who had stood against dragons and demons.

"Snape tipped me off to a few security loopholes," Lucy said grimly, opening the door of the empty classroom they had chosen. "We had best be on high alert."

In a few minutes, everyone but those left in the dorms had assembled in the classroom, their formal wear glimmering faintly in the starlight seeping through the windows.

"Snape told me that none of the guests for tonight had been vetted," Lucy said, getting straight to the point. "And the headmaster is away. We don't have direct confirmation, but it would be wise to assume there might be trouble tonight."

"Erza and I will stay with the Gryffindors," Jellal immediately said. "All night. With Natsu, we should be able to hold the Tower if needed."

"If they look like they're lingering and trouble's about to go down, pick 'em up and carry 'em," Gajeel growled. "We don't have time if there's someone in the castle who shouldn't be."

"Wendy, go alert Gray and Juvia. All three of you are responsible for checking the lower levels. Cana and I will sweep the dungeons."

"Levy and I will take the eastern half of the castle, and we'll get Lovegood back to her dorm." Laxus declared. "We'll pick up Mest too."

"So that leaves Cobra and I the western half?" Lucy asked.

"Be sure to check the Room of Requirement," Laxus reminded her. "And you're first to Gryffindor Tower if there's a problem. Anyone have any questions?"

"What are we looking _for_?" Levy asked.

"Trouble," Laxus said grimly. "People not where they ought to be. First priority is Gryffindor Tower, secondary goal is all of the houses. Students out of bed? Make yourself look like someone else and tell them you're an Auror. That's their version of Rune Knights. Walk them to their Head of House, or take their name and get them in a dormitory."

"Let's go then," Lucy said, and they split. Erza and Jellal headed back towards the party, while Gajeel veered off to head towards the dungeons, Wendy at his side.

Levy and Laxus moved to head back towards the party as well, but not before the lightning dragon slayer said: "Start from the top and work your way down. We'll meet around one in the morning in the Entrance Hall unless we hear otherwise from us, okay?"

"Agreed," Lucy said, and she headed for the main staircase.

 *****Ummm, oops? It got away from me again? Okay, so lots going on, but a bit of a timeskip coming up. We're about halfway through the year, a little over halfway through the month...pretty much on track.**

 **Now, because the plot bunnies have been clamoring for attention, and this is working out well (plus I've hit a creative block on all of my other ongoing projects) what do you guys say to a repeat of this in December? Assuming I finish this fic, I'd be willing to try another one. I've got a NarutoxHP crossover I've been itching to try, and a Naruto fic idea that's been bumping around. Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? I'm curious about what you guys think/want.*****


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Nine:**

Cobra was poking idly at the oatmeal in his bowl, wondering if he could bribe the house elves to lace it with poison for him. Probably not, given the likelihood that he'd end up killing half the table. But it was a nice dream.

The other dragon slayers didn't have this problem, he knew. Ash for Brains could just make flame. Or eat from one of the millions of fireplaces in the castle, so long as nobody was looking. Half-Pint ate _air_ for gods sake. Rusty had been given the half-destroyed cauldrons from the potion's laboratories, which meant he had a steady supply of metal to chow down on. Even Sparky could just conjure up some sparks with a flick of his wand.

But he had to stick to smuggling potions ingredients, harvesting his own from the Forbidden Forest, or take a risk and try eating basilisk venom. He was immune to all of the poisons in Earthland, but he wasn't going to take a risk that basilisk wasn't one.

As it was, he wasn't getting enough poison to really do much more than keep him going. He missed Cubellios, not only for her presence, but for her constant clouds of poisonous gas that had allowed him to glut himself. The council had been the same as this, and he had hoped once he had gotten out things would be better.

Turning to look at the head table, he wished the old man would get on with whatever announcement he was going to make. Why they were all required to be at breakfast eluded him, despite his sense of hearing.

Around him, the students were comparing holiday experiences, chatting about what they received, or panicking because they were that much closer to exams. It was inane, trivial banter, a nice way to ease into the semester after the brief holiday.

Not that he was complaining. After such a relaxing holiday, with no snot nosed children to run herd on, he felt...dulled. It was something that had been bothering him ever since this job started. He was _Cobra_. Of the _Oracion Seis_. And here he was, babysitting kids who had no idea how shitty the world was and palling around with the fucking _Faeries_.

Now if _that_ wasn't a sign of how far he'd slipped, he'd eat his coat.

They were too _nice_ , he thought, glaring at the mages spread out over the four tables. He'd definitely tried to kill them, and might still if given proper motive and opportunity, and they dragged him into the Hufflepuff common room and handed him a stick with a marshmallow on it and celebrated Christmas and the rest of their break like that.

 _Honestly, who does that shit for real?_

Heartfilia, he could stand. She was fucked up, so fucked over by life that it was a pleasure to listen to the agony, compared to the sickeningly sweet trilling of the other souls. Oh, all of them had been in various levels of torment when they arrived. Yet only Heartfilia was taking longer to heal, which was a comfort to his abused ears. It was like...bitterness after eating pure sugar. A novelty.

Besides, she wanted as little to do with him or anyone else, and held no illusions about being his _buddy_. Although, she had started to warm up to some of them before the holidays. Not her teammates, but some of the others. Ah well, meant she'd be off his back.

Finally, the old man stood up and the hall fell silent in expectation. With a twinkle in his soul, the headmaster said: "This year, we've been privileged to play host to our guests from the Fiore School of Magic. Since the exchange has gone so well, I have agreed to host four more students."

 _The fuck?_

The doors swung open, and a small group moved in.

"May I introduce to you," Dumbledore continued cheerfully. "Mr. Freed Justine, who will be joining his classmates in Ravenclaw, Miss Meredy Fernandes, who I'm sure Gryffindor will welcome, Miss Sorano Aguria, the newest member of Slytherin, and last but not least, Mr. Macbeth Oracion, a proud Hufflepuff."

Cobra couldn't help but snort at that, but a sudden stillness in the crowd tipped him off that something wasn't right.

Over at the Ravenclaw table, Heartfilia had gone dead silent, both outwardly and inwardly.

 _Fuck_.

Knowing that the other dragon slayers would hear him, he muttered: "A bit of a distraction would help right about _now_." And then, hearing resolve bloom and crystallize in the blonde's soul, he knew he didn't have time to wait.

In an instant he was on his feet, up on the table regardless of the dishes he was sending flying. Someone yelled from the other side of the hall, but it sounded like Natsu, so hopefully that was his distraction. Whistling, he drew Sorano's attention and flashed a quick signal at her, remnants of their early days as the Seis, before the lacrima, before everything changed, and pointed at Macbeth.

She got the message, considering how she dropped Macbeth to the ground with a well executed tackle.

Another lunging step and he was tackling Heartfilia, shifting so that neither of them hit their heads on the hard stone floor. Not about to cause a scene in the Great Hall was one thing; concussed was another.

She fought him like a wild thing, clawing, kicking, and biting, but he didn't let go. People were peering down at them, but he didn't have time to deal with them. Right now, there was only one thing on her mind, and it would definitely screw their cover.

"Alright everyone, get back. She needs some room. Let them breathe," Laxus was ordering as he muscled his way through the growing crowd. "Oracion, get her out of her and calmed down." _And then tell me what the hell just happened_ , his soul was saying, and Cobra nodded.

Shifting slightly, he got himself into a position where, as he stood up, he balanced Heartfilia over his shoulders like a sack of flour. Not the most elegant solution, but it was practical.

* * *

Lucy was still raging when he set her down inside Mest's office.

 _How_ _ **dare**_ _he_! She thought, balling her hands into fists.

"You were about to blow our cover by flipping shit in the Great Hall," Cobra said nonchalantly, lounging against Mest's desk. "What was I supposed to do, let you kill him?"

"He deserves it," she hissed, pacing the floor in an attempt to rein herself in. "He...he took her away!"

"She wasn't actually alive to begin with."

"Your snake couldn't actually talk to you," Lucy snapped, turning on him. "Does that make her less of a friend?"

"Leave Cubellios out of this," he snarled, and she snarled back, glad she had hit a nerve.

"Then don't try to justify what he did to Michelle."

"Haven't you figured out? We're _not_ nice people. We needed the clock key, and yeah, we turned your doll into a real person to achieve it. Boo hoo. Sorry we hurt your feelings."

"I'm only going to return the favor," Lucy growled, starting for the door, but when she pulled on the handle it wouldn't budge. "Do to him what he did to Michelle."

"He isn't going to let you step on him," Cobra warned with a snicker. "You can't land a hit on me, and I know all your movements. What makes you think you can land a hit on him, since he can _reflect_ all your movements back? At least with me you have a slim to nothing chance. Macbeth can just sit there and let you wear yourself out with your own attacks."

"Fuck off," she tossed over her shoulder. "And undo the damn door."

"Not until you cool your tits," the poison dragon slayer said, sounding amused. "There's nothing you can do that will get you out of this room before you calm the fuck down."

There were several phrases that she considered throwing at him, but she had learned that crass language was his daily vernacular. Crude insults meant nothing to him.

But they did make her feel better.

Twenty minutes later, after she had exhausted her vocabulary attempting to insult him and he had just leaned back against Mest's desk and _laughed_ , she slumped into one of the chairs. "Fine. I'm not going to attempt to kill him."

"Or rough him up, or really, do anything to him. In fact," Cobra said smugly. "You're going to leave him alone unless required of you. And if you do need to interact with him, you'll be polite about it."

"And is _he_ getting the same instructions?" Lucy snarked. "Or is it just me who's being hobbled?"

"Macbeth usually only wants to sleep," the poison dragon slayer said with a shrug and a laugh. "I doubt he'll go out of his way to provoke you."

"If he does?"

"Then he'll get the same talk. Now, are you going to behave yourself during Runes, or do we need to continue this conversation?"

"I'll behave, _mom_ ," Lucy replied with a roll of her eyes, enjoying the way he bristled at _that_. She was surprised Laxus or Mest hadn't come in, but she assumed both of them figured Cobra was a better disciplinarian in this situation, since they couldn't hear her soul.

"The council's dog is outside," Cobra said as she went to open the door. "He has our bags."

"And you didn't let him in?"

"Did you want pity?"

No, no she didn't. She wanted to rage and scream, and Cobra had let her have that. He let her throw her anger against him until it subsided, leaving them both in one piece in the end. Much less destructive than whatever she would have done to Midnight.

"...thanks," she mumbled, opening the door.

As Cobra had said, Mest was outside, both of their school bags in his hand. Snagging hers, Lucy ignored his questions and headed to Ancient Runes. The first period wasn't over yet, but it wasn't worth going to the lesson just to have Snape issue her detention as he released the class.

* * *

Of course, as it turned out, Midnight was in Runes too.

The others seemed to be on edge as they met up with her outside the class, but Lucy ignored them as if Cobra hadn't just tackled her in the middle of the Great Hall. Angel was there as well, but aside from a perfunctory glare, the other Celestial Wizard didn't seem to be in the mood for discussing the past. She did however stick close to Midnight though.

Freed was there, at Laxus's elbow as usual, and he surprised Lucy by giving her a hug.

As he stepped back, he said: "That's from Mira. Bickslow also said said that life's a lot more boring without the Cheerleader around." They all stared at him, but the rune mage just shrugged. "I was going to pass the message on no matter what, and would any of you _really_ cross Mira?"

There were shivers all around.

Before they could catch up, the door opened and they were filing into the classroom. Surprisingly enough, Freed seemed to be unconcerned by the new way of doing magic, and was keeping up with the class, despite Levy having told Lucy at the beginning of the job that nothing back home was like this.

 _He's been coached,_ Lucy realized, watching Freed easily translate a sentence. _Dumbledore knew that they would be arriving at Christmas and didn't tell us. How long has he been teaching them?_

Freed was there for Arithmancy too, blending in as if he had been there from the start. Meredy had also joined them, bouncing cheerfully into the seat between Levy and Jellal with a smile.

Now that she was distanced from her anger, Lucy could process it rationally. Obviously, they had backup. It was a relief. Now they could leave a full team with the Gryffindors and concentrate on the castle whenever an attack happened instead of having to split into pairs and do their best. Four new people meant four fresh pairs of eyes, which would also help. As nice as their new friendships were, they had a way of dulling their senses.

And once she had processed her anger at Midnight's appearance, and her rationalization of their appearance, she could focus on other things. Like what had been going on since they had left Fiore.

All four of the new arrivals had been dragged to the Room of Requirement during the lunch hour. One of the house elves had been convinced to send up lunch for them, and one of the others who had gotten there first had recreated the guild hall for them.

Apparently she wasn't the only one desperate for news from home.

"What happened to the others?" was the first question most people were asking. "Is everyone gone?"

"Most everyone," Freed said, looking longingly at the plate in front of him. "The Strauss siblings crossed my path once or twice. I think they have reasonable information on where the others went for the most part."

"What about you?" Erza asked.

"The Raijinshu joined forces with the remaining members of Crime Sorciere," the rune mage answered. "It's how we came to be here."

"What happened to Sawyer and Richard?" Jellal broke in. "What are they doing while you guys are here?"

"They went to look for Richard's brother. Evergreen got some information from someone in Mermaid Heel who had been in contact with him." Sorano took charge of answering the question, allowing a grateful Freed to eat something. "She and Bickslow were going to connect up with the Strauss siblings for a while."

"Why didn't they come along?" Natsu asked through a mouthful of food, earning a scornful look from Sorano. "It woulda been fun!"

"Probably because Bickslow would have a hard time maintaining cover," Laxus said. "And with that said, I'm guessing Ever didn't want to leave him on his own."

"For his sake, or for the rest of the world?" Cana laughed.

Freed looked mildly offended for a moment, and then smiled. "Both?" he offered.

Everyone laughed, even the Crime Sorciere members.

* * *

The month of January was a flurry of excitement over the upcoming apparation lessons and the new arrivals. Meredy seemed to be an instant hit with the Gryffindors, and Midnight was easily accepted by the Hufflepuffs once they realized that his main goal in life seemed to be to sleep.

Freed was welcomed wholeheartedly by the Ravenclaws after his first intellectual debate with a fifth year studying for the OWLS. And according to Cana, Angel was in the middle of a quest to subjugate Slytherin.

Lucy wished her well.

She, Luna, and Cobra continued returning to the Chamber of Secrets every so often. It was her initial refuge in the first two weeks, while she tried to keep her word and not kill Midnight. For a while, you couldn't walk through the main room of the Chamber without stepping on pottery shards that had once been clay disks she had blown up. Cobra had also let her throw spells at him until she got tired one night after her required detentions for skipping class and causing a scene, which did a lot towards getting rid of some of her pent up stress. It might have been her imagination, but the next night Snape looked slightly relieved as he set her lines.

It was the only relief she saw in him these days. She didn't notice it until after the break, when everyone was relaxed, but Snape and Malfoy were both wound so tightly that she was amazed they hadn't snapped. It leant more proof to their suspicion that Malfoy was a Death Eater, or just a Death Eater agent, in the school, and Snape was being forced to walk a fine line.

Their hands were still tied in Malfoy's case. Dumbledore wouldn't even let them search his belongings. In desperation, Lucy had suggested bringing Jellal into Slytherin to use his sleep spell on the boys' dorm and just checking his arm for the mark, but Dumbledore had refused.

"I don't understand," she hissed, raking her fingers through her hair during one of their strategy meetings. "We are 95% certain that Malfoy is a Death Eater. Cobra's soul listening magic basically confirms it. Why won't he let us act on it?"

Midnight cracked an eye open from where he was sleeping against the table. "Soul listening."

"What?" she replied absently, trying to regain her cool after the flare of anger against the headmaster.

"Soul listening," he repeated. "You called it soul listening."

"Well, _yeah_ ," Lucy replied, rolling her eyes at Cobra who had a shit eating grin on his face. "That's what it is, isn't it?"

"Nobody calls it soul listening," Midnight continued slowly. "They all call it mind reading."

"For heaven's sake, it's soul listening," Lucy growled. "I've been told off about calling it _mind reading_ too many times to forget."

Midnight let it drop, and they moved on with the conversation.

"What is he waiting for?" Laxus mused, looking at their list of evidence (albeit somewhat unethically gained) against Malfoy. "Is he waiting for a disaster? A death?"

"From what I've gained," Jellal said slowly, leaning back in his chair. "The headmaster has a habit of...playing things fast and loose with safety. People don't say much, but the Gryffindor trio seem to think the Philosopher's stone was far too easily reached, when you consider three eleven year olds found it. And the Chamber of Secrets...given the past history, shouldn't the school have been shut down after the first student petrification? Last year Potter and his friends got to the Ministry by flying on thestrals. Has that method of egress been cut off? Could I fly _into_ the school grounds by thestral?"

It was a sobering realization. "Are you saying that he _wants_ Malfoy on the loose?"

"I'm saying it's a possibility," Jellal replied carefully. "Potter's been sniffing around Malfoy since Slughorn's party, when Malfoy was caught, apparently trying to crash. In the meantime, Dumbledore's giving Potter private lessons. His arm hasn't showed any signs of healing."

"What's your hypothesis?" Mest asked from the head of the table.

"I think Dumbledore wants to provoke Malfoy's plot," Jellal answered, staring down at the table. "And I think he plans to die in the process, cementing Malfoy's place in the Death Eaters. My guess is that Draco's being used as a second spy, in case something happens to Snape."

All of them sat in silence for a long moment.

"It could make sense," Laxus said into the silence. "All of the pieces fit."

"Oh _fuck_ ," Mest swore softly.

Lucy couldn't help but agree.

* * *

On edge after figuring out a probable theory, Lucy and the others were wound tighter and tighter as February passed. They were exempt from apparation lessons, due to the dragon slayers' motion sickness and the overall questionable advisability of attempting to learn a new form of magical transportation when it wasn't their natural way of using magic.

As nothing happened and February drew to a close, Lucy felt as if they were balanced on a knife's edge. She almost _wanted_ another attack, wanted Malfoy to strike just so they had an idea of what he was planning.

The Hogsmeade trip on the first of March was cancelled, thanks in part to the strongly worded suggestions they had submitted through Mest. While nobody truly believed Malfoy would attempt to use another student to send a cursed object into the school, they didn't want to chance an attack of a different nature.

Lucy woke up to a patronus putting intangible paws on her chest. "Meet in hospital wing _,_ " the otter said in Jellal's voice as the blonde attempted to shake off the chill. "We have an incident. Strategists only."

 _Well, that narrowed it down to...the Ravenclaws, Cobra, and Mest_. Sliding out of bed, she slipped easily into one of her own outfits, strapping on her knee brace over the skinny jeans she had taken to wearing in the cooler Scottish weather. Tugging her hair out of the collar of her turtleneck, Lucy stood and quietly drew open Levy's bed-hangings.

To her surprise, the blunette was curled up with a book, reading despite the early hour.

"We've been summoned to the hospital wing," Lucy whispered. "Strategists only. Incident."

Levy furrowed her brow, but closed her book and pushed back the covers. Satisfied that her job was done, Lucy headed to wake up the male members.

Having learned her lesson about Laxus sleeping in the nude the last time she had to wake him in the middle of the night, Lucy went to wake Freed instead. As she drew back the curtains on his bed, she was surprised to see that _he_ slept half-naked as well, if his bare chest was anything to go by.

Fighting to control the spread of her blush, Lucy shook the rune mage awake. "We have an incident," she murmured as his eyes flickered open. "Jellal's called a strategy meeting in the hospital wing."

"I'll wake Laxus," the green haired man promised, reaching for the pants that were laid out on the nearby chair. "We'll meet you there."

Hoping Jellal had notified Cobra and Mest through patronus, Lucy headed straight for the hospital wing, knowing that the other Ravenclaws would follow as soon as they were ready.

Jellal was waiting for her, tucked neatly into a hospital bed. Cobra was lounging on top of the covers of the next bed over, looking smugly satisfied.

"Don't you look like the cat that ate the canary," she grouched, dropping into the chair between them. "And got cream too."

"I haven't eaten so well in _ages_ ," the poison dragon slayer informed her. "You will not ruin this moment for me."

"What's the emergency?" Lucy asked, ignoring Cobra and turning to Jellal. "And who else is in the ward?"

"Potter and Weasley," Jellal answered, gesturing to the only bed with its curtains drawn. "Natsu was here, but I sent him back to the dormitory."

"They're the emergency?"

"Weasley nearly died this morning," Jellal murmured quietly. "Poison."

"Did he finally piss Cobra off?" Lucy couldn't help but ask. The dragon slayer on the next bed over hissed in irritation but she ignored him. "Moving on, who, what, where, and when?"

"Don't know, something reasonably common that can be mixed with wine, Slughorn's office, and not more than an hour ago." Jellal recited tiredly. "Weasley woke half the dorm this morning after he got into some chocolates that had been spiked with a love potion. We took him to Slughorn for an antidote, and Slughorn gave them the wine."

"Slughorn's a coward," Lucy muttered under her breath as the rest of the strategy team filtered through the doors of the infirmary. "He wouldn't have the stomach to poison Weasley in front of Potter, let alone other witnesses. Did Natsu smell something was off?"

"Not in time to warn us."

"So how close is Weasley to dying?"

"Not very." Jellal had to raise his voice to be heard over the slight sounds of the others finding seats. "Potter shoved a bezoar down his throat to keep him from dying right then and there. Cobra got there a minute or two after and got most of the poison out of him. What's keeping us all on our toes is that the poison reacted with the love potion. Snape's working on a counter, and Pomfrey stabilized him. Potter's sitting with him now; McGonagall went to notify the parents and the headmaster."

"So, Slughorn tried to poison Weasley?" Laxus asked, bypassing the longer version of the morning's events. "That's out of character from what you've told me about him."

"Wasn't him," Cobra grunted, the smug smile still playing around his lips. "He kept babbling on about how it was sent to him, and he had planned to send it on to Dumbledore."

"Another deadly object meant for the Headmaster, if Katie Bell's friend was right that she was insisting on taking it to Dumbledore," Levy mused grimly. "Once may be a coincidence, twice is a pattern, at least in my book."

"Are we sure that it couldn't have been Slughorn?" Mest asked. "He certainly comes off as the jovial sort, but men like him have their fingers in any number of pies, and most often end up the true power behind thrones. From what I was able to discover, Riddle was in his Slug Club."

"Seemed as if he'd been hit with a _confundus_ ," Cobra interjected with a shrug. "Just localized to the bottle. Enough to obscure the memory of _who_ gave him the bottle and then plant the idea of sending it to Dumbledore. Except our poisoner didn't count on his greed being more powerful than the suggestion."

"I'm not sure whether to thank Weasley's lucky stars or curse his bad luck," Levy said philosophically. "Love potion and poison, all on his birthday."

"Where did the love potion come from?" Laxus asked Jellal.

"One of the Gryffindor girls. They're all mad for Potter. Granger tipped him off that they were getting desperate enough to potion him before Christmas."

"So we have Weasley laid up until they negate the potions, and a poisoner on the loose." Mest was pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Marvellous. And meanwhile, Potter's at risk for love potions."

"Did anyone see you remove the poison from the boy?" Laxus asked Cobra.

"Natsu took Potter to run for the matron, and I kept Slughorn busy. They asked how we minimized the poison when Pomfrey started doing her scans, and I told them that it was a method derived from a muggle concept." Jellal dropped his voice as the matron exited her office and went behind the closed curtains. "Slughorn's too busy blubbering about how he didn't know to care, and I had a word with Pomfrey to let her know that it was a Fiore quirk, not something we could share."

"Immediate concerns," Lucy said, conjuring a quill and parchment. "Any takers?"

"We should keep a watch on Weasley," Freed said, the first interjection into the conversation. "If the poison was intended for him, we need to be nearby while he recovers."

"I'm sure we can come up with a rotating roster of injuries and illnesses," Levy said with a snort. "Worst comes to worst, all the ladies suddenly start getting terrible cramps…"

"Moving on," Laxus said shortly. "We need to check Potter's belongings for anything tainted. This could have easily gone the other way."

"Natsu's already doing it," Jellal answered. "I sent him to do that to give him something to do and to deflect attention from the hospital wing with all of us here. With his nose, he should be able to figure out what's tainted and what's not."

"Long term," Lucy said as the immediate concerns petered out.

"Two attempts on the headmaster's life that caught students in the crossfire. We need to figure out who is doing it, and shut them down." Levy answered promptly.

"It's time we talked to Snape," Lucy said grimly. "We've been putting off getting confirmation of our working theory, and we can't wait any longer. Dumbledore will put us off, but Snape might answer, if we phrase things the right way."

"We need to up the watch on Potter and all of his friends," Laxus said with a sigh. "A dragon slayer near him at every meal to check for poison or other taints. Someone with them at all times. I think we need an exceed shadowing Potter around the clock."

"I'll talk with Wendy and get her to mobilize them," Mest volunteered. "Charle should be able to whip Lily and Happy into line."

"Who's approaching Snape?" Laxus moved on, looking for volunteers.

"Blondie and I," Cobra growled from his bed. "We'll get detention for arguing in his class and approach him then."

Without much more to settle, they hashed out a rotation of falsified injuries to keep Weasley protected. The Gryffindors were now permanently attached to Potter's hip, whether anyone liked it or not.

 _Just a few more months_ , Lucy reminded herself as she headed back to the Ravenclaw dorms to get ready for telling the rest of the group. _He just has to live a few more months before it's not our problem._

Early on in the first few months they had been there, different ideas about how they could get rid of Voldemort had been bandied about. After all, they weren't used to being hired for a set length of time and then just leaving, with the major problem unsolved. They were _Fairy Tail_ , after all.

But they had been told about the prophecy. Most of them had been ready to dismiss it as a pile of crap, but Charle and Cana had been adamant that it would come to play. If that was true, then none of them could defeat Voldemort. Only Potter could.

And Gajeel, surprisingly enough, had made the best point.

"This is their world," he said firmly. "The war is about their future and we're not going to be here long enough to care. In Edolas, we didn't overthrow the king because the people of Edolas wanted him overthrown. No, we kicked him to the curb because he was shitty and stole our guild. If the people here want Voldemort dead, they're going to have to do it themselves and make a world they want to live in. We can't make those decisions for them."

Natsu had been disappointed that they weren't going to be allowed to rampage throughout the countryside, but most of the rest of them were satisfied with that. It wasn't fair to Britain if a group of strange witches and wizards came along, dispensed their own personal brand of justice, and left, leaving them with whatever new problems they created.

 *****So I came down with a nasty head cold, traveled for Thanksgiving, and got exactly...no writing done. Whoops. But I'm close to 50k if I keep at it these next few days, and if I move right along I should manage to finish this without too much delay.*****


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Ten:**

Detention with Snape was easy enough to get. Midnight had practically a standing detention with the man due to the frequent naps the mage took in class. All Lucy and Cobra had to do was erupt into an argument that was, in all truth, only half staged.

So, they found themselves loitering outside the door to Snape's office down in the dungeons, waiting for him to admit them and give them their nightly task.

"Oracion, you have your lines. Heartfilia, Oracion, front and center." Snape opened the door with a snap, his voice barking out commands. Knowing that the potions master was on edge due to the demanding task of brewing specialized potions for Weasley, Lucy and Cobra didn't dawdle.

"So, you wanted to speak with me. You have me, so say whatever it is you felt was important enough to disturb my class for." The professor had taken his seat behind his desk as Lucy and Cobra moved to stand in front of him while Midnight took up his seat in the corner desk that had to be especially for those in detention.

"Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater," Lucy began, ignoring Cobra's snort and Snape's eye roll since the poison dragon slayer had likely expected her to be more tactful and the professor had likely heard their theory from Dumbledore. "And Dumbledore wants him to succeed."

That had Snape freezing. "The headmaster had informed me that you were laboring under the belief that my student is a marked Death Eater," he replied slowly after an almost unnoticeable pause. "However, I was not aware that you believed him to have any particular mission."

"We don't know what it is," Lucy admitted. "But we have a guess that Dumbledore wants Malfoy to succeed, and plans to stage his eventual death to benefit Malfoy in order to cement the boy's position as a second spy in the Death Eater camp."

Snape's face contorted, rage and anger playing across his face. "He's certainly staging his death," the man hissed, fingers clenching so hard on the wooden arms of his chair that Lucy was afraid he would break them. "But Mr. Malfoy is no prodigal who has seen the light."

"He's letting Malfoy do as he please?" the blonde asked incredulously. "How does that benefit anyone?"

"It is the intention of the Dark Lord that Malfoy murder the headmaster. If, by some slim chance, the boy succeeds, he will have rid himself of a dangerous enemy."

"And if he fails?" Cobra asked pointedly.

The man's smile was bitter. "Well," he replied sardonically. "It's a good thing that his spy is well-positioned to finish the task."

"But Dumbledore's dying, isn't he?" Lucy burst out. "From whatever cursed his hand? Why give Voldemort the satisfaction of moving it up a few days?"

"How else could my position be solidified?"

"What does McGonagall think?" Lucy asked desperately. "The Order, they're really okay with you hurrying the headmaster's death just to cement your position among the Death Eaters?"

"Who said they were consulted?"

"You're the only one who knows," Cobra breathed, realization dawning slowly in his eyes. "Nobody else knows that he's going to die. They'll all think that you killed him." The poison dragon slayer sounded horrified.

"He's not going to tell them? He's going to let them brand you a murderer, let them drag you through the mud and you won't even be able to help them with the new information you'll be close to?" Lucy felt bile churning in her gut. "Aren't you supposed to be important to him? Didn't he vouch for you during the Death Eater trials? And ever since?"

"I have put my faith in the wrong man, once again," Snape said bitterly, rising fluidly from his chair to stand before one of his bookshelves. "I first turned to Dumbledore to save a childhood friend, only to discover that he failed to save her. So I vowed to protect her legacy, only to discover that he has plans to squander all that I, and many others, have given far too much to protect. He can do no worse to me than he has already done."

His voice took on a mocking tinge, but it was obvious that it was the headmaster's words he was parroting back. " _Don't be so shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?_ Too many old man, and you will be only another name on a long list that will get only longer."

Lucy couldn't believe what she was hearing, but one glance at Cobra's face, a mask of fury, had her swallowing down the bile rising in her throat. Dumbledore, the man who claimed to be the leader of the forces arrayed against the darkness Voldemort represented, used those around him like pieces on a chessboard without care for their own desires.

"Fuck him," Cobra bit out harshly, one hand balled into a fist, the other unconsciously reaching for his shoulder. "Fuck all of them. Get out of here and save yourself. Come back with us when we leave."

"Can we even leave?" a new voice joined the conversation, and Lucy remembered Midnight was in the room. "If Dumbledore is going to die, will we be able to return to Fiore?"

Her breath caught in her throat. The portkey that had brought them there was supposedly one of Dumbledore's master creations. If he planned to die without either creating the portkeys or teaching someone else how to do it…

"I do not know."

"We're done here," Cobra said roughly, one hand clamping down on Lucy's shoulder and forcing her to turn towards the door. "I don't care what you tell your _master_ ," the poison dragon slayer called over his shoulder. "But none of us are pieces on his fucking chessboard. I may not like Fairy Tail, but there's no way in hell I'm letting him get away with screwing them over. It would make my losses to them a fucking embarrassment."

Midnight fell in behind them as they left the office. "What do we do now?" the reflector mage asked quietly.

"We raise hell," Lucy replied grimly. "Surprisingly enough, I'm with Cobra on this."

* * *

"You're blowing our cover," Laxus hissed as he reached the Entrance Hall with Levy and Freed hot on his heels. "Your patronus showed up in the middle of the dormitories. I had to make something random up to the guys to get away."

"Too fucking bad," Lucy said with a shrug, turning away to look at where Gajeel, Cana, and Angel were coming up from the dungeons. "Cover's shit now."

"What the hell is going on?" Jellal asked, arriving with the rest of the Gryffindor members. "I thought we weren't leaving them unsupervised?"

"They won't tell us," Laxus growled, jerking his thumb at Lucy where she stood with Cobra and Midnight, both looking as unconcerned by the irritation as she felt. "But it better be good."

"Wait until we get where we're going before you get pissy with me, Sparky," Cobra grunted as the Hufflepuffs joined them, Juvia handing Grey his shirt. "Everyone's here, so we can go."

Ignoring the questions that rose from all quarters, Lucy placed her palm against a stone next to the Slytherin hourglass and whispered: " _Serpens dormiens_."

The hourglass slid aside, revealing Lucy's favorite passage to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Where are we going?" Levy asked, peering into the darkness. "Did you find a new passage?"

"Something like that," Lucy shrugged stepping inside. "And where we're going is a _Secret_."

* * *

Tuesday morning, Severus was concerned about the members of Fairy Tail. According to his prefects, patronus charms had appeared in the common room, summoning the group to the Entrance Hall, and none of them had returned. There had been no sign of Heartfilia, who normally was one of the first students at breakfast, and it was almost half over.

He had been...unusually loose-lipped the night before. But Oracion and Heartfilia had managed to unknowingly push several of his more sensitive buttons and he had let loose. Hopefully they hadn't gone running to the headmaster, although if they had, he was certain the old meddler would have hauled him up to his office by now.

The other professors didn't seem overly concerned about the absence of the group, although Severus had caught Filius glancing towards the seats the missing Ravenclaws usually occupied. That alone told him that none of the group of mages had gone to any of them with their concerns, meaning that he and the headmaster were likely the only ones who might have heard about their grievances. Perhaps they had settled them among themselves.

Then the doors to the Great Hall were suddenly filled with people, and Severus had to revise his opinion.

All of the visiting mages were assembled, and none of them looked very welcoming. As a group, they entered the hall, drawing the attention of most of the student body as they veered off towards a large empty space in the corner of the room. One of them, Severus couldn't identify who, conjured a table large enough to fit all of them, placing it in the empty space. Someone else produced a hamper, and they began unloading food, each of them conjuring their own seat.

Filius leaned over Sinestra's empty seat. "Did they change the color of their house trim?"

Severus looked more carefully. Heartfilia's trim was a pink color. "They did."

"My sixth year boys say that a patronus summoned Dreyar and Justine out of their dorm last night. Neither one returned."

"The prefects for my house reported similar incidents," Severus admitted. "I would be willing to bet that the same happened in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor as well."

"What happened last night?" Filius asked, studying the Fairy Tail group as the rest of the hall attempted to finish breakfast, gossip about the changes, and observe the mages at the same time. "For them to break cover like this…"

"I may have said a few things to Heartfilia and Oracion last night that were unwise," he had to admit after a long moment. Filius was tangentially aware of the Order's activities, and Severus's own role, enough to know not to press when Severus used that particular tone of voice. "Unfortunately, they're not the type of things that can be easily forgotten about."

"I suppose we'll have to wait and see what Albus does," Filius murmured, glancing towards the old man's empty seat. "Do you know when he'll return?"

"No."

* * *

By the afternoon, the staff room was buzzing with talk about the mages' strange behavior.

"Has anyone ever seen that strange emblem they're wearing?" Pomona was asking the room at large. "It's something I've never seen before…"

"There's two emblems," Filius corrected. "And I assume it's the mark of their guild, since we knew Oracion and Fernandes were from a different guild than the others. They've also stopped participating in class. None of them turned in homework, and I don't think Heartfilia took notes at all."

"They've taken up positions around the school," Minerva contributed. "The front doors, several of the upstairs windows, and it seems as if Potter, Weasley, and Granger have gained permanent shadows."

"Malfoy as well," Slughorn added nervously. "Where's Gryder? Shouldn't he be reining them in?"

"It's out of my hands," the man said, coming through the door. "And honestly, I'm not too bothered by it."

"What do you mean?" Minerva demanded, rising to her feet. "You're the one they chose as headmaster."

The man in question laughed shortly. "Only because Erza's hopeless at public relations, Laxus couldn't be bothered, and Jellal's too afraid of himself to take control. Apparently I do public relations bullshit well enough."

"So Dreyar's the real leader," Filius guessed shrewdly. "I had wondered, but I wasn't certain."

"Before anyone gets any ideas about hauling him in to make them back down, I'd like to mention that he's survived inhaling the deadliest poison that we know. He took in as much as he could to protect the town it was released in, and managed to live long enough for them to get the antidote to him. And before that, he took out a group of five powerful mages that included his father. He's not the type of man you cross and come out unscathed."

"What is going on?" Pomona asked, wringing her hands. "Why have the separated and broken cover?"

"We've recently come into possession of some new information about the Headmaster that doesn't sit well with us," Gryder said coolly, not even glancing over at Severus as he answered the Hufflepuff. "We're still going to protect the students, but we're done being discreet. If the old man doesn't like it, he can send us home."

"What information?" Minerva asked, almost pouncing on him like the tabby she was. "What has Albus done?"

"It's not what he has done," Gryder said as he turned to leave. "But what he's going to do. Don't expect us to do anything but protect the students from now on. We're done playing students."

As he left, all of the professors burst into low chatter, but Filius leaned over to say: "You said you said something to Heartfilia and Oracion last night?"

Not trusting himself not to say more than he should again, Severus nodded.

"Oh Albus," the half goblin murmured under the noise of the other professors' conversations. "What have you done now?"

* * *

Harry was fed up with the constant shadowing.

"What's going on?" he burst out, turning on the two exchange students following him. "Are you exchange students or not?"

"We were hired to guard the school," one of them, one Harry thought was a Slytherin named Redfox although he had never really paid attention to the Slytherin students. "There have been a few changes and we've decided not to play around anymore."

"You're here to guard the school," Hermione repeated slowly. "Have there been more attacks? A reason why you would break your cover now?"

The girl with him, one of the newer students who was also a Slytherin sniffed disdainfully. "We've simply gotten new information. You don't need to know any more."

"It's my life!" he shouted, drawing the attention of a few first years travelling in the almost empty corridor. "I think if you're protecting me I should at least know why."

"You're a high profile target," the girl said, flicking a bit of her hair out of her face. "Why else would we protect you?"

"Yeah, what she said." the dark haired boy grunted. "Now calm down, you're scaring the kids."

Harry wanted to retort, but Hermione pulled him down the hallway and into an empty classroom. Their shadows didn't follow them inside, but took up positions outside the door.

"I don't trust them," Harry hissed as his friend closed the door with a wave of her wand. "They spend all this time pretending to be students and they're actually guards?"

"It explains the age thing," Hermione admitted. "I didn't buy that story they told us about an aging potion. And remember what they told us about having different magic? It makes sense that they would be good bodyguards if they used a magic most people wouldn't expect. And they called for reinforcements halfway through the year; no self-respecting student would transfer mid-year."

"So why doesn't someone do something?"

"Because Dumbledore probably wants them here, so the staff can't get rid of them even if they tried. Just...think of it as an extra layer of protection. They're not being all that intrusive like they could be. It's actually kind of easy to forget about them after a while."

He stared at his friend in disbelief.

* * *

Down in what had once been Salazar Slytherin's private study, Lucy looked up from the book she was studying as another heavy volume was dropped next to her. "Here's the treatise on magical travel you wanted," Gray said, peering over her shoulder. "Anything yet?"

"Not yet," she sighed, rubbing her eyes as she pushed her Gale Force Glasses aside. "We only glanced at portkeys before, since we weren't going any further than Hogsmeade and Laxus and Mest would have been able to get us out without too much trouble. It's pretty advanced Charms' work. Right now we might have to try and patch something together that combines our magic and theirs."

"What about this portal you told me about?" Slytherin called from his portrait. "The one to the third dimension?"

"Edolas?" Levy said tiredly. "You're talking about the Anima. None of us got close to it, and from what happened to us I'd guess it's a bit hard to control. Besides, we'd need Mystogun to help us and nobody's heard anything from him in seven years. So out of the four dimensions we know about, that one's completely closed off."

"Four?" Slytherin asked. "I thought there were only three."

"No, there's four." Levy ticked them off on her fingers. "Earthland, Earth, Edolas, and the Celestial Spirit Realm."

"Of course!" Lucy said, banging her leg on the underside of the desk as she jumped up. "Open, Gate of the Lion!"

The familiar surge of magic through her keys felt like a warm hug as Loke appeared in a golden glow. "You called, Lucy?"

"Loke, can you still open a gate in Earthland?"

"Not a big one," he replied cautiously. "But I probably could."

"Can you take me into the Spirit World and bring me back to Earthland?" Lucy asked pointedly.

"Yes. But more than three people would be too much for me, and I'm the strongest spirit you have that could open their own gate."

"And if I opened the gate from the Earthland side?"

"I could take more people, but what about this side?"

Lucy grinned. "I'm not the only celestial mage here."

"No."

"Conditionally. Just long enough for us to get back."

"Do you remember what she tried to do to you?"

"It sort of blends in with all of the other murder attempts, but I do remember."

"I don't like it."

"Do you want to help us go home if Dumbledore can't?"

Loke sighed. "Fine. _If_ she swears to behave herself, I'll add a _temporary_ and _conditional_ amendment to our contract that allows her to open the gate until all of the Earthland mages have returned to Earthland."

"There we go," Lucy said smugly. "We now have a way home that doesn't depend on Dumbledore."

Freed looked up from the piles of books he was surrounded by, hair up in a high ponytail and glasses perched low on his nose. "I can't imagine how we overlooked that solution, but it certainly solves our problems."

"Way to go Lu," Levy said cheerfully. "And way to go Slytherin for asking the right questions."

Slytherin nodded graciously, and then looked around at the books they had collected, some from his private study and others from the Hogwarts library. "Would it be possible for you to arrange to leave several of these down here? I would like to catch up on several centuries of magical progress."

 *****So. Homestretch. I have 2k to do tonight to hit 50k in 30 days, and an unknown amount to hit the end of the story. I should be able to reach 50k tonight, the rest of the story may take a few days into December. But it will be done.**

 **On that note, I won't be able to attempt another fic in a month during December. So that gives me some time to think about my next project/finish up some ongoing ones. Would you like to have me finish working on my two WIPs, or would you like to see me work on another fic in a month during January?*****


	12. Chapter 12

*****Second chapter updated today. If you missed the first chapter, go back and read that first, or this will make no sense.*****

 **Chapter Eleven:**

March and April passed in an unease truce between the Fairy Tail mages and Dumbledore. According to Laxus and Mest, who had met with the headmaster briefly upon his return to the castle, the old man was not pleased at their meddling, but grudgingly allowed them to continue as they were.

Since that first night, none of the Fairy Tail members had returned to the dormitories except to gather their things. A makeshift camp had been set up in one of the side chambers that Slytherin had opened for Lucy and Cobra during their initial explorations. If anyone came into the chamber through the way Potter knew about, they would find it completely empty. However, it was Fairy Tail's safe haven.

They had managed to purloin enough cots and beds from the Room of Requirement, which had opened to allow them to pilfer from the repository of debris left behind from Hogwarts students. The elves had been coaxed into giving them old bedding that wouldn't make it onto beds otherwise, giving them a variety of covers. Considering that some of them (Natsu and Grey) couldn't keep their covers in place or on their bed at all, it looked a little bit like a circus, with all of the colors, styles, and states of tidiness. It had taken several trips, but each of them had a bed and nightstand, using their trunks as wardrobes and chests of drawers.

Slytherin had told them how to open up several other features of the Chamber, including a proper room for duelling practice, a potions' laboratory that was several centuries out of date, but usable, and a tiny kitchen that they stocked from the supplies the house elves gave them. In exchange, Natsu and Cana were banned from his study. Mostly because Natsu was chafing at the bit after so many months of self restraint, and Cana was drunk more often than not these days now that she wasn't pretending to be a student.

Potter and his friends had tried several times to give them the slip, using the invisibility cloak they had been warned about, but they couldn't hide the from the enhanced senses of the dragon slayers. Each shift guarding Potter had a dragon slayer, and after Natsu had crowed loudly about tracking Potter, the boy stopped trying to sneak off.

Malfoy was much less complacent, and routinely attempted to give them the slip. However, the polyjuice potion he was using had a distinctive scent, and the slayers simply tracked that.

None of the other staff had attempted to confront them, although Lucy knew that Snape was aware of the reason behind their abrupt change in behavior. They had attempted to pressure the headmaster into revealing his impending death to McGonagall, at the very least, but he refused. Lucy was working on some type of plan to protect Snape from the Order's wrath, but it wasn't going well.

"We'll have no chance," Levy said grouchily, wadding up a piece of parchment and throwing it across Slytherin's study. "We'd have to get McGonagall to the site as soon as we could, and all she'd see is Snape killing Dumbledore. There won't be time to explain, not without blowing Snape's cover."

"Remind me why we can't tell them right now and spare us all the trouble?" Lucy asked, faced tucked into the crook of her elbow as she struggled to come up with a workable idea. "Because that sounds like a really easy way to do this."

"Just because we're not magically bound to silence now doesn't mean Dumbledore won't do it if he thinks we're going to talk. And if we tell anyone, they're going to go to Dumbledore and he'll silence them." Freed's logic was impossible to deny.

"How about we kidnap Snape?" Lucy muttered. "Stun him and bring him back with us. I'm sure he'll find something to do in our world. And Voldemort won't be able to get to him there."

"With Dumbledore dead, the Ministry will probably fall not too long after," Levy said slowly. "Potter will have to disappear or be hauled before Voldemort. With control over the Ministry, Hogwarts will fall to him as well, making it no longer a safe haven. Snape's the only Death Eater with plausible ties to Hogwarts who isn't a current criminal. Unless there's a ton of witnesses to Dumbledore's death, it could easily be spun as an attempt to discredit him. Voldemort will likely send Snape back to Hogwarts to be his eyes and ears here."

"So, we can't take Snape with us because if we're right and his true loyalty is to Hogwarts and the light, we want him at Hogwarts, even if he's branded as a murderer and working for Voldemort?"

"Not unless you want one of the other Death Eaters to be in charge," Freed said grimly. "Lestrange or Malfoy would be other likely candidates, although Malfoy has fallen from grace since the affair a year ago."

"Bugger," Lucy muttered, using a word she had picked up from one of the students. "So what are we going to do?"

"Protect the students," Levy said wearily. "And do what we can for Snape. We can't turn our back on him."

* * *

Tension between Potter and Malfoy came to a head in the middle of May. Lucy was on duty with Wendy, minding their makeshift infirmary that they had created in one of the spare rooms. It wasn't as useful as the Hogwarts infirmary, but thanks to some discreet inquiries with Snape, they had managed to smuggle enough ingredients out of the student store cupboard to make several batches of the more commonly used healing potions.

"Trouble," a voice shouted from the main part of the Chamber. "Wendy, we need you now!"

Lucy snatched up the satchel Wendy had prepared in case they had to go in a hurry and sprinted after the smaller girl. Sorano was outside, out of breath, robes spattered with stone dust and water.

"Bathroom, sixth floor," she gasped, pointing towards the passage that would take them there the fastest. "Potter and Malfoy got into it."

Wendy was already running, and Lucy was certain that she was using her magic to enhance her speed. By the time Lucy made it out of the passageway, she was bursting through the doors into the bathroom, barking questions.

"Some type of cutting curse," Gajeel was saying as Lucy entered the bathroom to find it half-destroyed. "He was about to _crucio_ Potter and we wouldn't have been able to break them up in time."

"How long ago?" Wendy asked, hands already covered in blood as she pressed them to Malfoy's chest, her magic fighting against the horrific gashes that were spilling blood onto the floor.

"Minutes," Natsu replied from where he was sitting on Potter, who looked both horrified and mutinous. "Sorano took off running as soon as he was about to cast _crucio_. She figured we'd need you."

"Juvia tried to slow the bleeding," the water witch murmured from her position kneeling next to Malfoy. "To buy you time."

"Lucy, blood replenisher," the younger girl barked. "He's going to live, but we need to get these closed and some more blood in him."

"How much?" She was rummaging in the bag for the vial of blood replenisher when rapid steps in the hall burst into the bathroom.

Snape was there, looking livid. His face froze as he saw Malfoy on the sodden bathroom floor, blood blooming out around him like some macabre flower. "Marvell, let me help. Then one teaspoonful of blood replenisher to start."

Juvia shifted aside, allowing the dark professor to take her place at Malfoy's side. He drew his wand, waving it gently over the boy's chest, murmuring softly as he did so. Slowly, between the two brands of healing magic the gashes began to close and the blood stopped pouring out at such a horrific rate until it stopped completely. Mutely, Lucy handed Snape the vial of potion when he gestured for it. Uncorking it, he sniffed it carefully, nodded, and then poured a measure down Malfoy's throat.

"Redfox, Marvell, take Mr. Malfoy to Madam Pomfrey and explain what has happened and what treatment he has received. Ensure that he does not leave the infirmary until I have come for him."

Gajeel bent down to pull Malfoy upright, half-dragging him into a standing position with the blond's arm slung around his shoulder. Wendy propped him up on the other side with an arm around his waist, the two moving slowly out of the bathroom.

Turning on Potter, who was still being sat upon by Natsu, the professor looked livid. "Mr. Dragneel, go to Gryffindor Tower and bring me Mr. Potter's potions book."

Natsu left the bathroom at a brisk jog. It was silent for a long moment, the only sound being the soft spatter of water as it hit the stone floor.

"Mr. Potter," Snape hissed darkly at the boy slowly sitting up from where he had been lying while the attention was focused on Malfoy. "I do not wish to hear pitiful excuses. The spell you used on Mr. Malfoy is one I am familiar with, and I know for a fact that it cannot be found in any published compendium of spells. Mr. Dragneel's return will only confirm what I already know. You will have detention with me every night for the rest of the year."

Potter started saying something about quidditch, and Snape remained unmoving. But Lucy was more interested in talking to Juvia.

"What happened?" she whispered, her back to Potter and Snape.

"He found Malfoy on the map," the other woman replied. "Malfoy was upset when we arrived, but he threw the first curse. I don't think Potter knew what that curse did. When the blood started appearing, he looked terrified."

"Hopefully this will keep him out of trouble for the rest of the year," Lucy muttered, watching as Snape neatly confiscated the book Natsu had just returned with, tucking it into one of his robe pockets. "We could use an easy time of it."

* * *

May faded into June in a blur of exams and supervising Potter's detentions. Lucy worked with Virgo and Loke to get clothing from the Spirit World for each member of the group, in case they had to make an emergency escape from the castle. Potter was moderately subdued after the incident in the bathroom with Malfoy, but bounced back as he began seeing the Weasley girl. According to anyone who had to keep watch over him, the attempts at sneaking out got worse as they attempted to find someplace to snog in private.

Tension was building in Malfoy and Snape as the end of the school year drew closer. Lucy and the others hadn't figured out what Malfoy's eventual aim was, but they knew that it could only end in Dumbledore's death. It had been a long, difficult discussion, but they were committed to protecting the students no matter what happened, and protecting Snape when possible.

Cana was doing tarot readings each morning, trying to get an idea for when the hammer would fall. Towards the end of the month of June, she cursed under her breath.

Lucy was sitting nearby, lacing up her boots as she prepared to head to the Great Hall for breakfast. "What's up?" she asked, looking at the card mage with concern.

"Lightning struck tower," Cana said, waving the card at the blonde. "It's bad news."

"Looks like we had best be prepared then," Lucy murmured, looking around at the room they had all made their home. "I'll pass the word to the others."

Going about the day as if nothing was wrong was a specialized form of torture. After Defense that morning, Lucy hung back, lost in the crowd of students as she waited for a moment to speak with the professor alone.

"Miss Heartfilia?" he asked, looking up from his desk to glance at her. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I don't know how much faith you put in divination," Lucy began slowly, hating what she was about to tell him, "but I've learned that Cana's predictions are fairly accurate."

"And what does Miss Alberona predict for us?"

"Crisis. Whatever this year has been building to, it will happen tonight."

Snape paused for a long moment. "I appreciate your insight," he murmured after a long moment, standing and moving to look out the window.

"Professor?"

He half turned towards her.

"We've figured out a way to return home, independent of the Headmaster." When he looked blankly at her, Lucy continued. "We couldn't figure out a way to help you, to keep them from turning their backs on you after...but if you wanted, you could come with us. Nobody would be able to find you there. You could do whatever you wanted."

For the first time that year, Lucy saw the most collected professor in the castle look startled beyond belief. "Miss Heartfilia…"

"We figure you probably won't take it, because there's probably a bunch of things that you can do, even without the Order's help. But we wanted you to know that we would have brought you with us, if you had wanted."

Rummaging in her pocket, she pulled out the dark scarf that Virgo had given her the night before. "Here. If you ever need help from Fairy Tail, just say my name while wearing that scarf. One of my friends, one you've never seen before, will come to you. They'll help you, or get you to a safe place where they can contact me. And they can carry messages."

Leaving it on his desk, she left the room, hurrying to catch up with the others on their way to Runes.

* * *

That night, they watched from the upper windows as Dumbledore and Harry left the castle for Hogsmeade.

Members of the Order were in the castle as added protection. Lucy recognized Tonks and Lupin, and was introduced to Bill Weasley.

"These are the kids Ron and Harry talked about over the holidays?" Will asked, looking at the assembled mages. "They don't look anything like students."

"We aren't," Laxus said coolly. "We're adults, all of us. We only pretended to be students, so as not to draw too much attention. Treat us like any other member of your Order, but know that we're here to protect the students." They had abandoned their student robes and took up their usual garments, their guild marks clearly emblazoned on their backs.

"Fine," Bill said, looking wary. "We had best get moving."

They dispersed after that, each taking a section of the castle to patrol.

* * *

Lucy was down by the Entrance Hall when the fight broke out.

Cobra was their first indicator that something was wrong. He froze in place before pivoting towards the stairs. "They're here. Move. Seventh floor, heading towards the Astronomy Tower."

Midnight and Freed raced for the stairs, but Cobra paused for a moment, crouching in front of Lucy. "Get on."

"What?"

"Do you want to be a part of the fucking fight?" he snapped, reaching behind himself and tugging on her leg. "You'll slow us down if you run, and by the time you get up there, you won't have anything left."

Seeing his logic, Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her legs around his waist. "You focus on getting us there," she ordered as he started up the stairs, taking them two at a time. "I'll keep us in one piece."

* * *

They reached the large foyer before the steps to the Astronomy Tower and found that everyone had reached the party before them.

Unfortunately that also meant students.

"How the fuck did they get here?" Lucy shouted over the noise as she took in the sight of Longbottom and the two youngest Weasleys duelling amidst the chaos. "And why haven't they gone away?"

"Can't spare a man to make them," Grey called, dodging what looked like a _crucio_.

"Freed!" Laxus shouted. " _Jutsu Shiki_! Get us a safe zone so we can get Mest up here!"

The rune mage nodded, face set. Dodging something Lucy couldn't place, he looked at them. "I need you to watch my back. Once the runes are up, I can't move."

"For as long as you need," Lucy promised, stepping in front of him as he placed himself in a corner. As good as her aim was, the Death Eaters were unpredictable, and more often than not she missed. Cobra was snarling on her left as he alternated between spitting out curses and cursing the situation.

Bill Weasley fell under a man who was aptly described as a beast. Ginny Weasley screamed and lunged for him, but Angel caught her around the waist and hauled her back, out of the way of a curse that could have done some serious damage.

"Get Mest up here," Freed barked from behind her. "The safe zone is ready. Start getting the injured and the students inside it."

"Laxus! Patronus please!" she screamed, deflecting a rebounded hex from Freed.

His silvery falcon shot out of his wand, hurtling away from the battle and Lucy could only hope that Mest got there in time. They outnumbered the Death Eaters, could probably make their odds better by breaking out their own magic, but in an enclosed space, with students nearby...it was too risky.

Otherwise they would just let Cobra poison them all.

A blast of ice knocked the Death Eater off Bill, but he just scurried up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower with several others, the last one casting some sort of barrier to prevent them from following. Lupin tried, but bounced off it, nearly getting hit with something purple and nasty.

"Get those kids out of here," Laxus bellowed, spells darting towards Death Eaters in between each word. "And start evacuating our injured."

Snape appeared then, his robes billowing around him. Plunging through the fray, he reached the blocked entrance to the Astronomy Tower and passed through the barrier.

 _There goes the bravest man I know_ , Lucy thought as she watched him go to what was only going to bring him pain and suffering.

If her spells started getting a bit more vicious, she wasn't going to be too bothered.

"Natsu, take Happy and get up to that tower," Erza shouted, one of her spells blasting a window to pieces. "We need to find out what's going on up there."

Mest appeared behind Lucy, the faint displacement of air the only sign of his presence.

"Where do you need me?" he asked as Lucy deflected another curse.

"Bill Weasley's down," Cobra growled. "Get him out of here and then come back for the kids."

"You can't send us away," Ron yelled as he shot a curse towards one of the Death Eaters. "We have as much right to be here as you."

"Don't argue brat," Lucy hissed, ducking to let a spell shatter harmlessly on the wall behind her head. "This is way out of your league."

"Why do you get to stay?" Ginny demanded as Angel tried to drag her towards the safe zone Freed was holding. "What makes you special?"

"That," Midnight said flatly as he reflected a barrage of spells. He was pointing at Juvia who narrowly dodged a killing curse by liquefying where it would have hit and opening a hole in her body. "Could you have done that?"

A Death Eater fell, and Ginny's face got even more stubborn. "This is our fight!"

"Just shut up and do what we say," Meredy shouted as she and McGonagall pushed back a Death Eater.

Longbottom fell, and only Erza's quick reactions kept him from getting hit by a second curse. "This isn't a game anymore. We can't be focused on protecting you."

Death Eaters came rushing down from the Tower, Snape and Malfoy in the lead, the professor with his hand clamped firmly on Malfoy's shoulder. As he passed the area Lucy was defending, he met her eyes.

 _It was done_.

Swallowing down her anger that he had been made to kill the headmaster after all, Lucy lost her patience with the girl. "Just do as we say, or we'll make you!"

"I'd like to see you-" Ginny began, but Cobra made a gesture to Angel and the former Celestial Mage stunned Ginny and began towing her towards the safe zone. Juvia had recovered Neville and was working on getting him to the safe zone when Potter burst out of the stairwell, ignoring everyone's calls for him.

Mest appeared to take Ginny as Natsu and Happy reentered the castle, looking shaken.

"The headmaster," Natsu began, but Cobra cut across him.

"Save it for later," he shouted, managing to stun one of the Death Eaters who hadn't followed Snape and Malfoy. "We have bigger fish to fry."

"Erza! Take your four and fall back to protect Freed! Cobra, take Lucy and Midnight and go after Potter!" Laxus discreetly electrocuted the most troublesome Death Eater, freeing up Lupin and Tonks to focus on one of the others. "Mest, get Weasley and Longbottom out of here and then come back for the last Weasley."

Cobra looked towards Lucy, and she nodded at the invitation he was offering as he shifted so that his back was to her. Jumping up, she locked her legs around his waist, and then he was running, Midnight keeping pace with them as they sped through several secret passages on their way to intercept Potter.

"We're going to grab him and fall back," Cobra growled to both of them. "No more, no less. Snape doesn't need us fucking around with this any more than we already are."

"Agreed," Lucy replied as Midnight grunted.

They burst out into the Entrance Hall, now decorated with glittering rubies from the broken Gryffindor hourglass. Other students were starting to venture out, likely drawn by the noise of the battle above them, but a snapped order from Cobra had them skittering out of the way.

Lucy slithered off his back as they reached the darkened lawns, now lit by what seemed like Hagrid's hut on fire, falling into step with Cobra as they rushed towards the two figures duelling on the lawn.

Potter had evidently pissed off Snape, from the spells and the attitude of the former professor, but Lucy couldn't blame the man. It had been a trying night, and it was only going to get worse from here on out.

"Get Potter," Cobra called as they spread out to flank Potter. "We need to fall back."

The order distracted Potter momentarily, enough for Snape to disappear into the night. Potter rounded on them angrily, but Lucy dropped him with a body bind. "Stay put for once in your life," she said coolly, stepping over him to help Midnight and Cobra put out the burning hut. They knew what waited for them back at the castle, and Lucy couldn't help but want to delay their return.

* * *

Anger warred with grief in the Infirmary, the news of the headmaster's death having spread to those assembled. The other staff members were running interference on the rest of the students, leaving McGonagall free to interrogate Fairy Tail.

"You were supposed to protect the school," the witch spat at them. "And how did you manage to miss this?"

"We told the headmaster that Malfoy was up to trouble," Laxus replied just as coolly. "He chose not to take action, and forbid us from taking action ourselves. If you are looking to blame someone for his death, blame him."

"He couldn't have foreseen Snape turning traitor," Lupin said bitterly. "He trusted him, and therefore so did I."

"How do you know this wasn't another one of his schemes?" Lucy challenged hotly. "He was ever so good at playing chess with human players. The headmaster was dying anyway; perhaps Snape saved him an excruciating death."

"Impossible," Potter snapped, fully mobile again and perched on the edge of Ginny's hospital bed. "You weren't there. Snape killed Dumbledore in cold blood."

"You know nothing," Lucy began, but Laxus silenced her with a wave of his hand.

"We're leaving now," he said firmly. "The headmaster never meant to send us home, so I think that justifies our early departure. Thank you for the time we've spent here."

Ignoring the outcry that arose, Lucy reached into her pocket and unclipped Loke's key from her ring. Passing it to Sorano, she waited for the other woman to summon the lion spirit.

"Professor Snape is a good man," she said firmly as Loke reached for her hand to pull her into the Spirit World. "Unfortunately, he is very good at pretending to be evil incarnate."

* * *

A year later, Loke brought her a letter. Written on parchment in a familiar handwriting, it simply read.

 _It is over. Everything has come to fruition, Potter will defeat the Dark Lord tonight._

 _It is a far, far better rest that I go to…_

Lucy cried, the scarf that the parchment was wrapped in clenched in her hands.

 *****Well, that's a wrap. I know I didn't go into a lot of things, like what the gang did when they got home, or who (if anyone) Lucy would end up with, but I felt as if this was the place to stop it.**

 **If you have specific questions, feel free to PM. I might have answers, but the two questions mentioned above definitely don't. There will be NO sequel though, unfortunately.**

 **Forgot to mention in the last chapter, but I quoted directly from** ** _Deathly Hallows_** **during the scene with Snape, so I obviously don't own it. And the last quote is from Dickens. Also not my own work. (And yes, Snape is a Half Blood. I'm fairly certain that he at least came across a reference to it. And I just like it.)**

 **Now, I've mentioned being interested in trying to do a fic in a month again during January. Would people rather I put up tentative summaries for a few ideas I have and put a poll on my profile page? Or should I just pick an idea and surprise everyone in January? Right now, the plot bunnies closest to being fic-ready are a Naruto fic, a Naruto/Harry Potter crossover, and a Harry Potter fic.**

 **Anyway, thanks for hanging around during this wild and crazy ride. It's been fun, and a reasonable diversion from the WIPs that I'm bogged down in. You all are the best.*****


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